Youth Parliament to convene in Moldova

A Youth Parliament will convene from April 19 to 21 in Chisinau, gathering 51 deputies aged from 18 to 25 years, as an eponymous project was launched on Monday, February 25, Info-Prim Neo reports. Moldovan speaker Marian Lupu has remarked that the initiative will contribute to strengthen the social dialogue between the political class and the young generation. In his opinion, the Moldovan youths don’t have yet enough opportunities to influence the decision-making process, because of which reason the Youths Parliament can become an efficient instrument for the youths to participate in managing the public affairs. The president of the Parliament is hopeful the final stage of this project will result in the youths sending messages and signals to the Moldovan parliamentarians and the whole political elite, referring to building up a democratic society based on European values. The speaker has stressed it’s important the political top-notch receive positively the youths’ messages. The “Governing Youth Institute” NGO leader, Sergiu Bejenaru, has said this is a project designated to be educating, but also promoting the participative spirit in Moldova’s public life. Launching the project settles in a context of objective need to promote, more insistently, adequate civic and political education. It should make the youths acquire not only knowledge, but also practical experience, as the dynamism of a civic and political education will be stimulated. Simulating the parliamentary procedure is going to be organised, aiming at familiarising and applying the knowledge on the decision-making process. He hopes the youths’ proposals and solutions will really be implemented by MPs. Alex Grigorievs, a country director for Moldova of the National Democratic Institute, has underlined the importance of promoting the active involvement of the young people into the political life and of educating young leaders in the spirit of actively participating in managing public affairs. The project is jointly unfolded by the Moldovan Parliament and the “Governing Youth Institute” NGO, with the support of the National Democratic Institute and of the ADEPT Association for Participative Democracy. The project is dedicated to Moldovan young people aged between 18 and 25 years and will gather 51 participants. They will familiarise with the mode of constituting the Parliament, with the functioning of the Legislature’s bodies, with the way of starting and debating on a legislative initiative etc. The youths will work in factions, committees and plenary sittings. The Parliament is going to provide working areas, including its hall where the plenary sittings are held. The participants will be selected from February 25 to March 21, and then, the selected will attend introductory seminars on the Parliament’s organisation and functioning, on political systems and doctrines and will assist at a plenary sitting of the Legislature.