The National Youth Council of Moldova, supported by several public youth associations, calls on the authorities to ensure the young people’s real participation in the process of taking decisions that concern them.
In a news conference at IPN, the Council’s chairman Valeriu Drăgălin said the money allocated for the Network of the National Local Youth Councils is managed non-transparently. For almost two years, the intergovernmental commission for youth policies hasn’t met. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Research is accused of delaying the foundation of the Youth Agency for which about 2.5 million lei has been earmarked.
Ana Indoitu, secretary general of the National Youth Council, reminded that under the law on young people, a Youth Agency was to be created in 2016 to ensure the implementation of youth policies and programs drafted by the Ministry and to contribute to the formation and improvement of human resources and consolidate the youth organizations all over the country. Even if financial resources were planned, the agency wasn’t created. Over 1,000 petitions were submitted to the Ministry. There were held several meetings with representatives of the Ministry as a result of which the Council proposed a concept of this body, but an answer wasn’t provided.
The Council ascertained the extended passivity of the intergovernmental commission for youth policies that is responsible for the coordination of the drafting, implementation and monitoring of youth policies at governmental level. According to Valeriu Drăgălin, the commission worked only in 2016, when it held two meetings. Since 2017 until now, it had no meeting. The Council underlined the necessity of reviewing the normative framework and of improving the work of the commission, especially of the provisions that refer to the selection of members, their rights and obligations, length and rotation of posts.
Ana Nikita, head of the Public Organization “Calea Lactee” (“Milky Way”), said the commission should become functional again so that the young people could take part in the formulation of policies that refer directly to them.
The youth organizations also said that the Ministry has developed a number of local/district youth councils that engage the young people, but they do not enjoy autonomy. According Valeriu Drăgălin, the Network of the National Local Youth Councils was founded non-transparently and its financial management was entrusted to a newly created nongovernmental organization that does not have experience. It is not clear why this organization was chosen. So far, the Network of the National Local Youth Councils has presented no progress report or financial report on how the about 1.6 million lei allocated from the state budget was managed. The activist called on the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research to present the progress reports of the youth councils and the documents based on which financing is provided.
