The involvement of civil society in decision-making is an indicator of democracy in a state, and the Moldovan government has turned this objective into a priority, State Chancellery secretary Adrian Băluțel declared during a Radio Moldova talk show.
As a EU candidate, Moldova has 9 conditions to fulfil before accession negotiations can be opened. One condition is to increase transparency and involvement of civil society in decision-making processes.
“Overall, there is some degree of transparency in decision-making, civil society is involved and its opinion is requested regarding various legal proposals and Government decisions. But there is always room for improvement to achieve greater transparency. A continuous platform of interaction between public authorities and civil society must be established. There is an action plan that foresees the creation of a permanent platform for cooperation with civil society. The authority responsible for implementing this action is Parliament’s Secretariat, and the indicated deadline is June 2023”, Andrei Nașu, expert of the Legal Resources Center, told the same program.
Adrian Băluțel, the State Chancellery secretary, says that the Parliament-Civil Society Platform will be set up by June, and the authority of consultative platforms at ministry level will be expanded as well.
“The Parliament-Civil Society Platform (will be) a forum for debates and for promoting parliamentary transparency. Parallel to this process, we are moving forward with a Government Resolution to create consultative platforms for ministries. We are talking about a normative framework whereby the existing consultative platforms for the ministries will obtain more powers and more openness to civil society. Civil society will have the opportunity to express itself regarding the feasibility and quality of some proposals”, said Băluțel.
The European Commission’s pre-negotiation recommendations to Moldova concern the justice reform, electoral legislation improvements, fight against corruption, de-oligarchization, fight against organized crime and recovery of assets, improvement of public services, the public administration reform, greater involvement of civil society in decision-making, capacity building for public administration, human rights protection and combating of gender-based violence.
