It has been 11 days since representatives of civil society put forward a number of demands, but the government did nothing to constitute the dialog group asked by the Resolution of the Civic Forum of January 29, 2016, director of the Institute for Public Policy Arcadie Barbarosie said in the public debate “Need for communication and change. Virtual dialogue between civil society and the government on the prospects of the demands put forward by the Civic Forum,” which is the 50th of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” staged by IPN News Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.

According to the expert, the government knew beforehand the demands of protesters and civil society and anyway took no step and had no reaction. “Today it is 11 days since we put forward the demands and several simple steps could have been taken to try and establish a dialogue with representatives of the Civic Forum. It’s true that the Prime Minister asked for a meeting with civil society, but underlined that he does not represent the whole government. He said that he can discuss only the themes that refer to the executive,” stated Arcadie Barbarosie.

The expert noted that one of the demands was yet fulfilled – the package of laws on integrity was adopted. “The colleagues who monitored that document said that it generally coincides with what the participants in the forum asked. The document is identical with the proposal presented by the Government of Chiril Gaburici, which was then rejected,” he said.

According to the executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT) Igor Botan, who is the standing expert of IPN’s project, the Forum’s demands can be also found on the list of conditions imposed by the Government of Romania. “These conditions with serious accents will also be present in the European Union’s Resolution on Moldova of February 15. We tell the rulers: “You made us faint, but the echo of our resolutions will be found in the EU’s conditions. You cannot go on beyond the EU as the European Union has in its hands what is called the financing instrument of the Association Agreement,” he said.

He stated that the government is yet forced to take some steps. “Head of Parliament Andrian Candu had to announce that a new contest to choose the governor of the National Bank of Moldova will be chosen after the first contest staged last yearend failed. So, the conditions put forward by the colleagues from the Association “Expert-Grup” were accepted by Andrian Candu after the given message came from the international financial institutions,” said Igor Botan, noting that the development partners know very well what’s going on in Moldova.

The speakers said that they would be satisfied if the government that seems to be ignoring the demands of the Civic Forum fulfilled the provisions of the Association Agreement with the EU, which include the demands presented by civil society to the authorities.

The public debate “Need for communication and change. Virtual dialogue between civil society and the government on the prospects of the demands put forward by the Civic Forum” is the 50th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.