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| Veaceslav Craciun | |
Useful and topical experience
The Autonomous Territorial Unit (ATU) of Gagauzia intends to establish official cooperation relations with South Tyrol. This is the conclusion reached as a result of a working visit paid recently by the Bashkan of Gagauzia Irina Vlah and Speaker of the People’s Assembly Vladimir Kyssa to the capital of the Italian autonomous province Bolzano.
The leaders of Gagauzia had a series of meetings with senior officials of South Tyrol, namely the Speaker of Parliament Roberto Bitto and the region’s governor Arno Kompatscher. The press service of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia said the sides discussed such issues as regional development, the region’s powers, institutional relations, dispute solving mechanisms and the economic development of South Tyrol. Vladimir Kyssa spoke about the activity of the People’s Assembly, noting that the experience of South Tyrol is “useful and topical” for improving the relations between the Moldovan authorities and the Gagauz authorities.
During the past few years, the European experience, especially the Italian experience of establishing relations with autonomous units, is often studied in Gagauzia. For example, the representatives of Gagauzia on the working group of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, which is making effort to deal with the improper functioning of ATU Gagauz Yeri, often refer to the experience of South Tyrol. Two years ago, Moldovan and Gagauz lawmakers paid a fact-finding visit to Bolzano.
“Summing up the results of the visit, the working group reached the conclusion that the experience of South Tyrol is useful for improving the mechanisms of interaction between the Moldovan and Gagauz authorities,” deputy chairman of the People’s Assembly of ATU Gagauzia Alexandr Tarnavski stated in December 2015.
Internal and external guarantees
The lawmakers presented the essence of this experience in a special report on the results of the visit. For example, among the highlighted particularities of South Tyrol is the fact that its status cannot be modified by the Italian Parliament. Also, the disputes between the autonomous unit and the central authorities are solved by the Constitutional Court. The ATU Gagauzia has asked for many years to examine these two matters in its relations with Chisinau.
A bill drafted by the working group envisioned the modification of the Law on the Special Legal Status of Gagauzia. This provided that the given act can be amended by Parliament by the votes of two thirds of the MPs and only with the consent of the People’s Assembly. But this legislative initiative was adopted only in the first reading. As regards the fact that the disputes between Comrat and Chisinau are solved by trial courts, the representatives of Gagauzia for now limit themselves to only dissatisfaction and disagreement with such a practice, without putting forward concrete initiatives to change the situation.
The Gagauz politicians also appreciated the Italian experience concerning the functioning of regional parties. The political forces of South Tyrol work intensely in the period of local elections, promote the interests of the local community and form coalitions with Italian parties in national campaigns, said Gagauz deputy Fiodor Gagauz.
The external guarantee factor is another particularity of South Tyrol, which the politicians didn’t yet emphasize. In the case of the Italian province, this role is played by Austria, which, at legislative level, obtained from Italy the right to protect the German-speaking minorities of the province (annex IV to the Peace Treaty between Austria and Italy, which was signed in Paris on February 10, 1947). The reasons were substantial: during many centuries the province South Tyrol had formed part of Austria, being annexed to Italy in 1919, as a result of the retailoring of the European map after the war. In the case of Gagauzia and Moldova, such comparison is not relevant.
An interesting experience, with particular prospects in our conditions, resides in the activity of the special body created with the participation of the Italian authorities and the administration of South Tyrol. Unlike the working group that consists of members of Moldova’s Parliament and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, in Italy this is a mechanism of intergovernmental cooperation.
The necessity of creating an analogous mechanism of cooperation with Gagauzia is determined by the activity of the working group during the past two years. If we analyze the decisions taken by this group, we see that most of these bear no relation to the proposed objective – ensuring of the functionality of Gagauzia – and should have been approved in Government meetings. During two years, there were drafted only three legislative initiatives concerning the guaranteeing of powers of ATU Gagauzia.
Balance of interests
Besides politicians, members of expert associations of Gagauzia and Moldova also familiarized themselves with the realities in South Tyrol. In September, Bolzano was visited by a group of representatives of a number of regional and national nongovernmental organizations, including “Piligrimdemo”, IDIS “Viitorul”, Center “Contact”, and teachers of the University of Comrat and independent experts. During the visit, these studied the experience and mechanism of interaction between Rome and South Tyrol concerning the transfer of knowledge from the central level to the province and the role of civil society in the process.
At the moment, the experts are preparing a number of studies that will contain practical recommendations for public associations, the authorities of Gagauzia and the Republic of Moldova, international partners that take part in the dialogue on the enhancement of the status of Gagauzia.
The features typical of South Tyrol, which result from the presented examples, are many in number. But not all of these can be applied. There should be a balance between the regional and national interests. It is important for the autonomous unit not to feel discontented because it cannot enjoy greater autonomy, while the state should not consider that it offers the region exaggerated powers.
Italian senator Francesco Palermo, president of the Institute for Studies on Federalism and Regionalism, in the discussions with Moldovan experts formulated exactly the essential criterion for an efficient dialogue between the central authorities and the autonomous unit: formulation of reasonable and well-founded proposals.
Veaceslav Craciun, Comrat
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