22^nd Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Monitoring of grassroots democracy in the Republic of Moldova

Strasbourg, 22.03.2012 – The national decentralisation strategy developed by the government of the Republic of Moldova is a sign of this country’s commitment to conducting a thorough reform of local public administration, said the Congress on 22 March 2012 in adopting a recommendation on local and regional democracy in the Republic of Moldova.  The report, presented by Francis Lec (SOC, France), was produced following two monitoring visits in September and November 2011.  While calling, in its recommendation, on the Moldovan authorities to ensure that local authorities were allocated resources commensurate with their responsibilities and to adopt a new law on the status of the capital, Chişinău, the Congress believed that the efforts of the Republic of Moldova should be encouraged, so that the good intentions expressed by the authorities would be translated into action in the future.

Numerous positive aspects were noted, including growing cross-border co-operation and an increase in the number of women acceding to local public office.  Nonetheless, the Congress felt that local authorities were far from having the resources they needed to fulfil all their responsibilities, and they still had insufficient financial and tax independence.  Furthermore, the competences of the different tiers of government continued to be inadequately defined.

The report also focused on the problems facing the inhabitants of the security zone and in the neighbourhood of the transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova, particularly regarding movement and transport.  The Tiraspol authorities declined to meet the Congress delegation.