Parliament to examine projects to protect historical monuments

The parliamentary commission that is investigating the cases of deterioration and damaging of architectural monuments of historical importance will submit a number of bills with amendments to the legislation to the legislative body for adoption. The commission’s chairman Ghenadie Ciobanu has told Info-Prim Neo that the legislation does not now ensure the appropriate protection of the historical monuments. According to the lawmaker, the national legislation leaves a door open for the persons who demolish an architectural monument to erect a new construction in its place and this is done inclusively by court decisions. The trials in such cases are long and the monuments are destroyed meanwhile. Even if the court imposes a fine on the person who illegally demolished a monument, the sums are very low compared with the value of the monument and the damage caused by destroying it. The parliamentary commission will suggest that the persons who demolish historical monuments should be investigated criminally, not only administratively. It will also propose issuing urbanism certificates for designing constructions based on the sketch approved by the National Council of Historical Monuments. The person who will ask for a construction or demolition authorization will be obliged to inform not only the State Construction Inspectorate, but also the Agency for Monument Inspection and Restoration. During 2006-2011, there were destroyed 40 monuments protected by the state. The information for 2012 is yet unavailable.