13th Plenary session of the Congress : 29 May to 1st June 2006

Speech by Vitalie Vrabie, Minister of Local Public Administration, Moldova

Strasbourg, 31 May

Mr. President,
Honourable assistance,
Dear colleagues,

First of all I would like to say that this is an honour for me to participate in the Plenary Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE) – the only forum, at the European level, of the local communities’ voices – in my new capacity as Minister of the Local Public Administration of Moldova. This recently established Ministry is a specialised body in charge of coordinating the activities related to the local self-government, aiming at strengthening and promoting at the level of public policy the principles and standards our country subscribed to by acceding to the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

Despite of the difficulties and challenges that Moldova faces in the process of its democratic development, including in adjusting its national legislation to the European norms of local democracy, Moldovan authorities proved their determination to advance on the pathway of the reforms in this field.

In this respect, the constructive partnership we enjoyed with the Congress was and remains crucial for the success of these transformations. I have felt this over the three years of activity in my capacity of member of the Moldovan Delegation to the CLRAE - a period when I have learnt a lot. The experience I obtained here will certainly help me to successfully fulfil my current mandate.

In my new capacity I am honoured to bring to your attention today the main actions defined by Moldovan authorities in response to the Recommendation 179 of the CLRAE from last November, a document of special importance for my country.

Firstly, with the support of the Congress and other Council of Europe bodies we managed to eliminate a serious gap in the process of reinforcing the local democracy, that had negatively affected the dialogue between Moldova and CLRAE – the lack of a reliable partner at national level. Today we managed to set up a Ministry, which will deal directly with the local public administration’s needs, the local self-government and the decentralisation process.

Referring to other key-achievements carried out as a result of the respective Recommendation, I would like to mention the following:
Starting from the recognition of the existence of certain shortcomings in the legal framework on local democracy in Moldova, our Government and Parliament succeeded since the adoption of the Recommendation 179:
1) to set up a task force on improving the legal framework of the local public administration within the Government;
2) to create three working groups within the Parliament:
- on administrative control and legality
- on local public finance and inter-budgetary relations
- on delimitation of competences between the 1st and 2nd levels of the local public administration, as well as of the local public administration of the 1st and 2nd levels and the Government.

At the same time, I would like to stress that the Moldovan Government participated in the two major projects carried out by the Directorate of Co-operation for Local and Regional Democracy, DGI:
1) National Strategy on Training civil servants and locally elected persons in Moldova;
2) The programme, Democratic Governing in Moldova, conducted within the Joint Programme EU/CoE to Strengthen Democratic Stability in Moldova 2004-2006, which finalized with three reports:

a) On local finance and inter-budgetary relations in the Republic of Moldova
b) On distribution of competences between the different levels of public administration in the provision of key local services
c) Administrative control over local public administration acts.
Thus, it is obvious that among the major tasks under the competence of the newly-created Ministry there will be that of coordinating the process adjustment of the national legislation to the Charter’s provisions as well as supervising its implementation.
In this respect, I would like to underline the need and importance of clear definition of competencies of first- and second-level local authorities through an appropriate legislation, as well as of the difference between the status of civil servant and of locally elected representatives.
As regards the local authorities’ financial autonomy, the Moldovan Government recognises that it represents the vital component of local autonomy and a genuine decentralization is possible only through a large financial autonomy at local level. Thus, both the Government and the Parliament continue to work on drafting the respective legislation, on the basis of the report on local finance and inter-budgetary relations in the Republic of Moldova, elaborated by the experts within the Joint Programme for Moldova.

Upon its completion, the above mentioned draft legislation will be submitted to the CoE for legal appraisal. In parallel, other initiatives were launched at national level aiming at improving the current system of inter-budgetary relations. Following the request of the Finance Ministry and the Coalition of Non-governmental Organizations of Fiscal Decentralisation in Moldova, the Moldovan Government participates in the implementation of the project, Reforming System of Intergovernamental Transfers in Moldova, supported financially by the Fiscal Decentralisation Initiative of LGI/OSI from Budapest. The project’s goal is to reduce the financial dependence of local public administration of the first level on the local public administration of the second level and on the central public administration, through drafting of a new mechanism of inter-budgetary relations.

In this context, it goes without saying that many of these activities complete each other and need to be correlated. Moreover, the experts of the Association of Mayors and Local Communities in Moldova, participating in all mentioned activities, ascertained that until present a huge volume of data, information and opinions was accumulated in the main fields mentioned in the Recommendation 179, which are to be attentively processed, analysed and systemised.

At the same time, it is necessary to carry out a revision of the existing legislation on local public administration’s competences. And in this respect, cooperation between the governmental and non-governmental sectors represent an extremely positive element.

Dear friends,

We recognise the fact that there is still a lot to be done and that only we are those who, in the end, are to improve the current situation in the field of local public administration in Moldova. In this context, I would like to take this opportunity to respond positively to the Secretariat’s offer to provide us with the necessary assistance in drafting the Rules of the newly-created Ministry, defining its tasks, structure and mechanism of functioning, so that we would be able to correctly start this process in Moldova. In fact we already started this work today in the morning with our partners from Council of Europe secretariat.

In conclusion, I would like to voice our hope for a continuous productive collaboration with the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe, whose support is hard to overestimate in strengthening the local self-government in Moldova.

Thank you for attention and I will be happy to hear your comments and questions.