Council of Europe's CALRE rapporteurs pay visit to Chisinau
15:58 | 21.06.2022 Category: Official
Chisinau, 21 June /MOLDPRES/ - The Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CALRE) returns to Chisinau, more than one year after the signing of the roadmap on local democracy in Moldova, in order to learn from central and local public administration representatives the results of the implementation of the commitments taken with the signing of the document by the government and CALRE in April 2021, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.
The State Chancellery today hosted a vast discussion with CALRE rapporteurs and representatives of the Finance Ministry, Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry (MAEIE), parliament and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (UTA Gagauzia), as well as the ones of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM).
Government’s Secretary General Dumitru Udrea stressed the importance of the partnership between Moldova and CALRE. ‘’The expertise provided by CALRE represents an extra reason in the promotion of decentralization and enhancement of the level of local autonomy in Moldova. For the government, it is essential that all citizens, no matter in what region they live, enjoy quality public services. Therefore, the partnership of the central administration with the local one should be strengthened,’’ Dumitru Udrea said.
For her part, the head of the CALRE delegation, Gunn Marit Helgesen, said that she appreciated the constructive dialogue held with Moldova’s authorities during the last year and that she was confident that the goals of the roadmap would be achieved.
The document provides for multiple activities at the level of the public authorities, which are to be carried out in order to ensure the functionality of the local democracy in Moldova. The participants in the today’s meeting tackled more provisions of the roadmap, among which: continuing the local administration reforms, increasing of the financial resources of the local authorities, changing the legislation on local referendums with reference to the new Electoral Code, prepared by the Central Electoral Commission to be submitted to parliament, enhancing the managerial capacity of the local authorities and increasing the local representatives’ salaries.
The roadmap represents an instrument for the enforcement of the CALRE recommendations. Moldova signed the European Charter of Local Self-Government on 2 May 1996 and ratified it on 2 October 1997. Moldova was earlier monitored by more CALRE delegations, which generated the working out of CALRE recommendations 179 (2005) and 322 (2012), recommendation 411 (2018) and 436 (2019).
Photo: Government