Members of the first Parliament of Moldova (1990-1994) and of the present legislative body came together for a solemn sitting today, April 26, to sign again the Declaration of Independence that was approved on August 27, 1991, but was destroyed in fire during the April 2009 events, Info-Prim Neo reports. The festive sitting started with the opening of an exhibition of photographs about the first democratic Parliament. A documentary about the work of the first legislature of the 1990s was shown afterward. Today's sitting takes place 20 years from the first meeting of the democratic Parliament and in connection with the adoption of the Tricolor on April 27. Moldova's first President Mircea Snegur said he came to the sitting with special feelings as the documents adopted by the first legislative body became an architecture of the state symbols. Head of Parliament and Acting President Mihai Ghimpu said the restoration of the Declaration of Independence is “a real chance to repair the history.” Premier Vlad Filat said the present legislature has the task of continuing the democratic aspirations of the predecessors. “We had to go through difficult periods until we returned to a normal development path,” he said. His Holiness Petru, the Metropolitan Bishop of Bessarabia, said the restoration of the Declaration of Independence is a happy event for all the Romanians. He expressed his regret that the previous Government could not preserve the document. The sitting is attended by several MPs from the Transnistrian region. One of them, Sergiu Popa, who was a member of the first Parliament from Dubasari constituency, said he never understood how the two banks of the River Nistru could be separated. “The 20 years have passed very quickly. We were more optimistic then. This document is an axiom and it should be restored,” he said. The parliamentary group of the Communists Party did not come to the sitting. Earlier, the leader of the party Vladimir Voronin said the restoration of the Declaration of Independence is a lark. The Head of the first Parliament Alexandru Mosanu said the statehood of Moldova for the Communists does not start on August 27, 1991, but in 1812, from Tzar Alexandru I, or from Iosiv Visarionovich Stalin, the greatest dictator of the mankind. The Declaration of Independence of August 27, 1991 was signed by the 278 members of the first legislature. Only 230 of them are now alive. The signatures of the late lawmakers will be scanned. The restoration procedure will start with the reading of the Declaration of Independence by the first Speaker Alexandru Mosanu. Afterward, the attending MPs will be invited to sign the Declaration. The procedure will be filmed and photographed and recorded in the solemn sitting's minutes that will be written by the secretary of the Parliament's Apparatus and signed by Head of Parliament Mihai Ghimpu.