Parliament postpones debate on Culture Minister’s dismissal

The Parliament has postponed the consideration of a motion introduced by a number of MPs seeking the dismissal of Minister of Culture and Tourism Artur Cozma for “irresponsible attitude towards state-protected monuments” until an unspecified date when the Minister is able to appear before the Parliament, Info-Prim Neo reports. The motion was introduced two weeks ago by the MPs of the Moldova Noastra Alliance Party and several unaffiliated deputies. They demand the dismissal of Artur Cozma “for irresponsible attitude towards the Teodosiu Mansion”, a state-protected monument. The MPs also demand that the General Public Prosecution Office investigate the case and the Government rebuild the monument. At Friday’s Parliament sitting, during a debate on procedure rules, the motion’s authors requested that Minister Artur Cozma should be summoned to the Parliament without delay. Speaker Marian Lupu tried to temper the petitioners, saying that Deputy Minister of Justice Nicolae Esanu could as well speak on behalf of the Government as Cozma would. Following an exchange of retorts between the requesters and the speaker, the Communists’ Faction solicited a 15-minute break. After the sitting resumed, the speaker accepted to debate the issue at another sitting and the date is to be established depending on the availability of Minister Cozma. According to the motion’s authors, the Teodosiu Mansion, which was located on 160 Stefan cel Mare Boulevard, was demolished on August 11, 2005, without any authorisation from the Government or the Parliament.