Tempo of democratic reforms in Moldova is not as fast as it shall be- PACE co-reporters

Democratic reforms in Moldova are not implemented as fast as they shall be, the co-reporters of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Josette Durrieu and Egidijus Vareikis, said at the end of the visit in Chisinau (12-16 March). During their visit to Moldova, Durrieu and Vareikis met with the leaders of the parliamentary factions, speaker of the parliament, head of the state, and visited Transnistrian region. Egidijus Vareikis noted that things are not worse in Moldova, or better, and Moldova has to take into account the time. He also noted that it should not be used anymore the Transnistrian conflict as an excuse for certain mistakes or difficulties. This conflict does not trouble the implementation of reforms of audio-visual and justice, he noted. Referring to regulation of Transnistrian conflict, the PACE and CoE co-reporter considers very important withdrawal of Russian troop of the region, according to commitments take by Moscow at the OSCE summit in Istanbul in 1999. In his opinion, one of the cause of non-solving of the conflict is the fact that both parts are afraid to find a compromise in order to get out of the current situation. In this context, the new customs regime will not contribute to solving the so-called conflict, but wants conditions for the next steps, Vareikis mentioned. Josette Durrieu, at her turn, said that after implementing the new regulations at Moldovan-Ukrainian border we got into a new phase of the crisis in Transnistrian problem. The situation is rather bad, she continued, the goods couldn’t get out of the region. This situation will have rather negative consequences and at the moment it is not known the solution of this blockade. About Russia’s part in this item, Durrieu noted that for this state this situation is rather sensible, especially now, on the eve on Russia’s chairmanship of the Group G8. „Regarding Ukraine’s position, we will be able to make some conclusions after parliamentary elections in this country,” Durrieu said, underlying that undertaken measures should be kept. Referring to company Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) and the fact that there are different opinion concerning its activity, Durrieu said that there is a problem at the level of internal activity of the company and the level of received message. „We discussed with president Vladimir Voronin on this and the head of the state made a final remark that if other solution cannot be found, TRM will be privatised,” PACE co-reporter continued. She underscored that such option is not the best one and there is no democracy without free press, with a high level of deontology and professionalism. According to president report it is mentioned that at the meeting between the head of the state and co-reporters, the part made a report on the level of implementation by Moldova of commitments assumed within the Council of Europe. They also discussed about the Calendar Program of the government, drafted according to PACE resolutions and recommendations. In this sense, it was underlined the necessity to accelerate and intensify the activities that would determine the European Forum to stop monitoring Moldova and to get to a higher cooperation level within CoE structures. Last PACE resolution regarding situation in Moldova was approved by the Parliamentary Assembly on 4 October 2005. The main conclusion was that “being for 10 years member quality of the Council of Europe, Moldova advanced significantly on the way of democratic reforms, but a great number of commitment were not complied appropriately.” The authors of the report mentioned then that they agree to stop monitoring Moldova’s actions, but „but this thing depends on Moldova”.