The National Participatory Council (CNP) says that the referendum for joining the Customs Union Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan cannot be organized regarding an issue concerning fiscal policies because it contradicts the Electoral Code. The entrance agreement is essentially a treaty of fiscal policies and contravenes Moldova’s obligations towards the World Trade Organization and the European Union. Joining international treaties is clearly established procedure and the referendum can only validate the result of negotiations and not the other way around, Info-Prim Neo reports. Expert in constitutional law Vitalie Catana, invited by the organizers of the press conference, explained that according to the Moldovan Constitution the decisions adopted through referendum have supreme juridical value and law power. “According to constitutional norm, this referendum, even if it takes places, is annulled by constitutional stipulations. Formally, the Parliament would be obliged to reject the request to organize this referendum. The law stipulates expressly how treaties should be initiated and concluded by initialing them. Besides, according to the law, the initiative must come through a presidential decree and the negotiations are carried by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the Parliament intervenes only at the stage of initialing an international treaty”, stated Catana. Eugen Revenco, member of CNP’s foreign affairs and security group, added that the decision to join a treaty belongs to the Parliament and only in exceptional cases, stipulated by law, a referendum can be organized after the treaty was finalized already. The constitutional competence to decide the organization of the referendum belongs to the President. On the same topic, the coordinator of CNP’s economy, finances and business environment group Valeriu Prohnitchi stated that Moldova lost two decades to build a liberalized foreign trade framework. Moldova has the most bilateral and multilateral agreements of liberalized foreign trade. “By joining the Customs Union, we give up all the free trade agreements we signed, which were negotiated to the blood. We’d close us in a customs union where we don’t decide the trade policy and this would affect Moldova’s competitiveness, as the trade policy in the Customs Union is more severe and customs duties are three times higher than in Moldova. This means more expensive imports, lower wages and less jobs”, stated Prohnitchi. Arcadie Barbarosie, coordinator of the foreign policy and security group within CNP, says that when something like this is proposed, the first thing to do is the impact analysis, in order to find out the negative consequences upon economy, standard of life, freedom of circulation, etc. If Moldova joined the Customs Union Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan, the impact would be most negative. “Actually, the Social-Democratic Party doesn’t even want a referendum. What they launched is a populist and political action, meant to enlarge their voter base, targeting the next parliamentary elections. The party leaders realize this is win-win situation. Joining this Union is harmful economically and socially and, as a result, affects the level of wages and pensions. Dear PSD members, please explain the people that if they join this union, they’ll lose pensions and wages and that the vague dreams of cheap natural gas are only unattainable dreams”, stated Arcadie Barbarosie. In the spring of this year, the Social-Democratic Party of Moldova created an initiative group to collect signatures for the organization of a referendum regarding Moldova’s entrance in the Customs Union Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan. The National Participatory Council is a social organization created to advise the Government. Its mission is to develop and promote strategic partnership between public authorities, civil society and the private sector in order to strengthen participatory democracy in Moldova. It offers counseling for the development of public policies, facilitates the participation of civil society and of the private sector in the process of public decision-making.