PDM leaders: No changes felt by society on ending the Moldova-EU Action Plan

On the expiration of three years during which the EU-Moldova Action Plan should have been fully completed, no positive and palpable changes have occurred in the Moldovan society. The statement was made on Wednesday, February 27, at a news conference called by the Moldovan Democratic Party (PDM) leaders, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The extremely exalted assertions the authorities make, in our viewpoint, are far from being true,” says the party’s prime deputy president, Oleg Serebrian. According to him, both success and regress have been attained, yet it’s the failures that prevail. He says the PDM does not decline that laws matching the European standards have been adopted and the dialog with the European Union has intensified. However, the party finds that from passing a law to its being implemented is a long way to go. The PDM also finds the dialogue with the EU has been a bilateral one, more focusing on the Chisinau– Brussels relationship, not reaching out to the big European capitals, as it should. Numerous problems have been signalled out vis-à-vis the democratic institutions segment. The mass-media go on being obstructed. The party’s leader, Dumitru Diacov, has shown deep concern with restricting the opposition parties’ access to the programmes of the public broadcaster. „If a TV station mirrors the opinion of a single party, it should not be funded from the budget,” Diacov has said. The PDM considers the activity of the „Teleradio-Moldova” does not correspond to European standards and does not insure the equidistant and objective informing of citizens, through a free competition of ideas, personalities and political parties. In the same context, the PDM deputy president, Oazu Nantoi, has underlined that, lacking informed citizens, the elections turn into a farce. „When the parties are not acting in equal conditions, the political confrontation becomes more and more radical, it is pushed to the street. The PDM wants to avoid such a situation. In order to insure free and fair elections next year, we must create conditions that the citizens be informed,” Nantoi has remarked. The Action Plan between R. Moldova and the European Union was signed on February 22, 2005 for a three-year term. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Commissar for Foreign Affairs and European Neighbourhood Policy, on a trip to Chisinau from February 14 to 15, this year, said the EU would consider the opportunity of a new agreement with Moldova, after the Plan would have been fulfilled completely. The European official said Moldova had recorded successes in carrying out the Plan, including for the last two months, yet, some measures were not accomplished so far. She stressed on the importance of implementing the adopted legal provisions. The parliamentary elections of 2009 will be a key moment. The accredited ambassadors will attentively monitor the electoral process, because of which reason it’s absolutely necessary the polls should be free and fair, Benita Ferrero-Waldner said. She also pointed out that all the parties to run for the parliament should benefit of equal access to media. One of the conclusions concerning Moldova made by the General Affairs and European Relations Council of the European Union, at the level of foreign ministers who joined on February 18 in Brussels, is that the EU is available to start considering a new accord with Moldova, which will exceed the Partnership and Cooperation Accord. The Council is waiting for the Commission’s Progress Report, expected in April 2008.