The Centru District Court on Monday upheld its earlier decision to annul a police record that ultimately led to the invalidation of Andrei Năstase’s victory in the 2018 Chisinau mayoral elections on grounds that he had engaged in election-day campaigning. During a press conference, the leader of DA party recalled that the police decided to appeal the initial ruling, pronounced half a year ago, leading the Chisinau Court of Appeals to refer the case back to the district court.
A group of activists called “The Article 2 initiative” (a reference to the Constitutional article that enshrines popular sovereignty and prohibits usurpation) is demanding that Central Electoral Commission members and Constitutional Court judges resign or be dismissed, as general local elections approach and the eventuality of snap parliamentary elections seems more and more likely. “Considering the abusive behavior of the current makeup of the Constitutional Court, which has become an active political player in blatant violation of the Constitutional boundaries, and also considering that most CEC members were delegated by parties that are not represented in Parliament anymore”, The Article 2 Initiative believes “the two institutions that are instrumental to the organization and conducting of elections are not up to the task of ensuring free and fair elections”.
The director of the European Institute for Political Studies Viorel Cibotaru said the countries that do not form part of the European Union will be unable to develop to the desired extent or to the extent required by time if they do not switch over from a neighborhood program to an accession program. According to him, the Republic of Moldova is present in all the discussions related to the EU through the 1 million Moldovans who possess Romanian passports, which is EU passports. “We are not outside these discussions if we start from the capacity of citizens who will increasingly enjoy the rights to demand, to interfere, to take part in the decision-making processes inside the EU,” he noted.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Jacek Czaputowicz suggests adding important annexes to the Association Agreements with the EU signed by three of the EaP countries, constituting a secretariat and an EaP presidency, establishing a regional economic area and introducing a regional roaming system for the EaP countries. He noted that ten years after its launch, the EaP is still not perfect, as it constitutes a sort of a synthesis of political ambitions, strategic potential and geopolitical compromises. The Eastern Partnership is in need of review to adapt it to the changing world and new geopolitical realities in the region. A new approach towards the future of the EaP in three distinctive areas is required: in the area of legal approximation, institutionalisation and sectoral cooperation.
Expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Edurad Țugui said reforms are still needed to strengthen democracy and the rule of law in the six ex-Soviet states. The “more for more” formula continues to be a challenge, especially for the three states with Association Agreements that aim to join the EU. The EaP was launched and applied in a difficult international and European context, when a series of factors obstructed the proper implementation of the project. First of all, the internal dynamics in the EU were testing.
In the high-level conference centering on the tenth anniversary of the Eastern Partnership, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said the EaP countries deserve a new visionary political decision on rapprochement from the EU. He noted that the commitments in such areas as good governance, ensuring of democratic standards, harmonization of the legislation should be fulfilled, underlining one can do nothing without an open and well-trained team and this refers not only to the state authorities, but also to civil society and the business community.
Moldovans and foreign investors are rather encouraged to invest and develop their businesses elsewhere, because in Moldova laws don’t work, stated Alexei Repede, president of the Association of Moldovan Businesspersons from Everywhere (AOAMP), during a press conference held to announce the Diaspora Business Connection Project.
Who will win the elections in Gagauzia on June 30? The competition for highest post there is underway, publicist Veaceslav Craciun says in a feature for IPN. He noted it is easy to anticipate who the inhabitants of Gagauzia will vote for on June 30, without naming Irina Vlah. According to him, whether it will be necessary to defend this choice in court or not is another question. The parliamentary elections held in Moldova this February were like a warmup for Irina Vlah’s team and showed the solid position she enjoys in the region as the Socialist candidates she supported in two single-member constituencies scored an overwhelming victory. Now the Socialists and President Igor Dodon declare they will actively support Irina Vlah as a political ally. Nonetheless, even without the Party of Socialist, the current Bashkan has enough electoral trump cards. Even if her opponents challenge her government results, her successful contacts with the supreme administration of Turkey and Russia weigh a lot for many Gagauz voters.
The WB experts said the economic growth is expected to decelerate. Economic expert Veaceslav Negruța said the World Bank’s conclusions should be followed by particular policies that would help cope with the risks and factors that stop the economic growth, on the one hand, and that undermine the stability of public finances in the long term, on the other hand.
The size of government for its level of income is unusually large in Moldova and State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) still dominate several sectors. SOEs display much lower productivity levels and growth than their nonstate counterparts, and SOEs are present in at least 19 out of 30 sectors, in contrast to 8 sectors in Estonia, for example, says the World Bank study “Rekindling Economic Dynamism”. “With less productive firms, Moldova is less able to compete on global markets, and thus, while trade occupies a substantial share of GDP, the country’s exports are growing more slowly than in other Eastern European countries,” said one of the study authors Elisa Gamberoni, noting also other factors that explain the low productivity of the Moldovan enterprises.
A Green Theater will be built in the “Râșcani” Park of Chisinau with the support of the municipal authorities of Arad, which will allocate about 500,000 Romanian lei for the purpose. There will be set up a stage and a platform that will host about 1,000 spectators.
Details on IPN!
