Only less than one third of the activities stipulated in the Association Agreement with the EU were fully implemented during the last six months, says a monitoring report compiled by the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” and the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT). According to the experts, the results achieved in August – December 2015 were eclipsed by a number of major failures, including the perpetuation of political tensions, uncertainty about the unlocking of external financing and the delay in reforms.
The monitoring presented in a news conference at IPN shows the association agenda in the period was implemented at a moderate pace. ADEPT executive director Igor Botan said that after the involution witnessed by Moldova in 2015, the informative notes of the development partners highlighted the urgent steps that need to be taken to bring things in Moldova to normality.
According to the experts, among the failures is the suspension in foreign financing, delay in doing reforms in the financial-banking sector, non-appointment of a new National Bank governor and inefficient communication between the public institutions in implementing the most important reforms. The association agenda must be intensified by urgent and consistent actions so as to increase transparency at the key institutions and the de facto participation of civil society in public consultations, promote meritocracy in public institutions and their de-politicization. A plan of action should be adopted to improve the situation in the banking system by increasing the independence of the central bank and improving the banking surveillance instruments.
As regards the justice sector reform, the National Instate of Justice hasn’t been yet reformed, while the normative documents needed to do the reform in the prosecution service haven’t been yet adopted. “The reformation of the National Integrity Commission is a chronic problem. The three laws concerning the Commission’s work haven’t been yet passed and this generates risks of inefficiency at this institution and leads to failure in fighting corruption,” said expert Mariana Kalughin.
Among the main accomplishments are the unblocking of discussions with the Transnistrian authorities on the implementation of the Association Agreement and the launch of important twinning projects in the financial sector.
The report was produced with support from the United States Agency for International Development within the Moldova Partnerships for Sustainable Civil Society.
