President Igor Dodon, in an extended-format meeting with journalists in the evening of March 28, signed a decree to initiate a national consultative referendum. The people will be asked if they support the abrogation of the law that makes the repayment of the US$1 billion stolen from the banking system their burden or not; if they want the President to enjoy more powers for dissolving Parliament so that this could ultimately announce early parliamentary elections; if they agree to reduce the number of MPs from 101 to 71, and if they want the History of Moldova to be studied in schools. The decree took effect on March 31, when it was published in the Official Gazette.
On March 29, the presidential administration has published the draft memorandum of cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Commission and the Republic of Moldova, which will be signed in Chisinau on April 3. The sides will cooperate in a number of directions, such as regional economic integration, commercial policy, analysis of economic development and macroeconomic situation in the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Republic of Moldova, customs and fiscal regulation, technical regulation, implementation of sanitary, sanitary-veterinary and phytosanitary quarantine measures. The memorandum is not an international agreement and does not generate rights and obligations regulated by international law for the sides.
Prime Minister Pavel Filip paid a working visit to Belgium and Luxemburg during March 29 – April 1. In the meeting with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Vice President of the European Commission, in Brussels, the Premier signed an agreement between Moldova and the European Union concerning the security procedures for exchanging and protecting classified information. On March 31, Pavel Filip took part in the third meeting of the EU – Moldova Association Council, where there was presented a progress report. According to the report, the national plan of action for implementing the Association Agreement for 2014-2016 was 73.73% carried out. During the three years, the political dialogue between Moldova and the EU saw periods of maximum intensity as well as of slowdowns, determined by the political instability. In 2016, efforts centered on the fostering of the dialogue and contacts with the EU institutions and member states. After the third meeting of the EU – Moldova Association Council, Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said the Republic of Moldova should continue the process of implementing reforms, especially in justice and the fight against corruption, while the European Union will offer support in this regard. For his part, the Premier assured that the authorities remain committed to do reforms to develop the country and create decent living conditions for the citizens.
The MPs on March 30 adopted a bill to amend the Constitution and annul the parliamentary immunity in the first reading. The bill was proposed by a group of Democratic, Liberal and unaffiliated MPs. The Socialists, Communists and some of the unaffiliated MPs didn’t support the draft law, calling it an instrument for intimidating the opposition. Under the bill, paragraph 3 of Article 70 of the Constitution will be removed. Now this provides that the MPs cannot be detained, arrested and searched, except for cases when these are caught red-handed, and cannot be sued without the Parliament’s consent.
Also on March 30, President Igor Dodon had a meeting with the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselsky in Holercani. Krasnoselsky handed over a list of ten Moldovan functionaries the charges against whom will be dropped to President Dodon. In the meeting, the two agreed that they will make a common approach to the international partners to support, including financially, the rehabilitation of two international roads, M14 and M21, and to rehabilitate and protect the Nistru River.
On March 31, the National Bureau of Statistics made public the results of the population and housing census taken in May 2014. These show that the total population is of 2 998 235, by over 300,000 lower than ten years ago. Women represent 51.8% of the population. The aging process has become more accentuated. The number of persons older than 60 during the last ten years increased by 3.1 percentage points, while of people younger than 16 declined by 2.6 percentage points. Each second person (56.7%) in Moldova considers Moldovan is their mother tongue. For 23.5%, the mother tongue is Romanian. 75.1% of the population said they are Moldovans, 7% - Romanians, 6.6% – Ukrainians. As regards the language spoken usually, 54.6% indicated the Moldovan language, 24% – the Romanian language, 14.5% – Russian, 2.7% – Ukrainian, 2.7% - the Gagauz language and 1% – Bulgarian.
Deputy minister of economy Valeriu Triboi on March 31 was arrested by anticorruption officers on charges of abuse of power and causing of considerable damage to the state budget. The prosecutors and officers of the National Anticorruption Center carried out searches in the office, car and at the home of the functionary. Valeriu Triboi is suspected of buying a building to the value of almost 1 million lei from SA “Moldtelecom”, whose founder is the Ministry of Economy, through the agency of third persons. Afterward, the functionary leased out the building for a period of 10 years to the company “Furnizarea Energiei Electrice Nord”. The searches at the Government continued on April 1. Two more persons were arrested in the same case – one of the functionary’s advisers and the director of “Furnizarea Energiei Electrice Nord”.
Selection by Elena Nistor, IPN
