Parliament starts spring/summer session

In the near future, the Parliament is to have a round of hearings, with the first one to address reforms in the judicial system, and, in particular, the cases that Moldova lost at the European Court of Human Rights, Speaker Marian Lupu stated on Thursday during a briefing preceding the first meeting of the Parliament’s spring/summer session. “We must find out the origin, reasons and consequences of why this system is not working properly and what steps should be taken to rectify the situation”, Marian Lupu said. The Speaker announced that in the next two weeks the emphasis will be put on a set of draft laws which derive from the Moldova-EU Action Plan. As the plan expires on 22 February, the package must be examined and passed both in first and second readings. This step will have a direct impact on the country’s assessment report regarding the degree of implementation of this document, the Speaker said. Among other important projects and actions, Lupu mentioned the sets of laws aimed at adjusting the legislation with the National Development Strategy, the bill on local public finances, and others. The Speaker shared his idea of creating a special parliamentary commission that would find solutions to the issue of teaching the official language in schools teaching in other languages than the official one. In 2008, the Parliament will continue cooperating with the civil society and will work with the NGOs to elaborate a development strategy for the civil society. The legislative body will start new actions aimed at strengthening parliamentary relations with the neighbour countries. The Parliament could offer support in improving the political tone and rhetoric in the bilateral dialogue with Romania, the Speaker said, adding that during this session the MPs could come back to practical actions in this respect, like the bilateral collaboration Commission and the negotiation of a new interparliamentary collaboration protocol. The Speaker noted that this is the next-to-last session before the 2009 parliamentary elections and this event will certainly leave it mark. Naturally, the spirits will get hot, still, there are certain MP responsibilities, national interests, the need for maintaining the functionality of the legislative forum, he concluded. This session could finish towards the end of July (two weeks earlier than usual – e.n.) to make it possible for MPs to meet for the autumn/winter session no later than on September 1 (as a rule, the autumn-winter session of the legislature starts in October – e.n.) Still, Marian Lupu added, this possibility is to be discussed by the Parliament’s standing bureau.