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Activity of Public Institutions

Parliament
Government
Presidency

Banks punished by Iurie Gotisan
Parliamentary Imunodeficitar Syndrome by Sergiu Grosu

Activity of Public Institutions

Parliament

1.1. Appointments. Dismissals

The Constitutional Court decided to validate the lawmaker mandate of Sergiu Sococol, the 65th candidate in the list of the Party of Moldovan Communists at the parliamentary elections.

1.2. Legislative documents

• Decision on creation of the investigation commission to examine situation of detainees from the detention facility # 3 based in the Chisinau municipality. The motivation of this decision was that this institution holds more than 1,000 persons who wait for a court ruling or delivery of their cases to court. Many of these persons are held there for many years because the penal investigation is delayed or because of a long examination of causes by courts.

• Law on annulment of debts to the social insurance budget for 2004 calculated for agricultural producers from settlements in the security zone of the Dubasari district. By passing this law, parliamentarians decided to annul debts in the amount of over one million lei of agricultural businesses based in the district of Dubasari, owners of land fields on the other side of the Ribnita-Tiraspol highway, who could neither hold economic activities, nor they paid social insurance fees for their workers because of obstacles and abuses of Transnistrian authorities. This amount will be paid to the social insurance budget from state budget, so that the persons concerned not suffer social damages.

• Law on prevention and combat of trafficking in human beings. This legislative document aims to create the legal framework needed for prevention and combat of trafficking in human beings, insurance of protection of rights and interests of victims of trafficking. The law contains regulations on prevention and combat of trafficking in human beings; protection and assistance for victims of trafficking; cooperation of public administration authorities with public associations and other representatives of civil society in preventing and combating trafficking in human beings. The U.S. Government provides financial assistance of about 2 million dollars for implementation of this law, in particular for creation of the centre for the struggle against trafficking in human beings, international anti-trafficking analytical bureau, and accomplishment of the programme on protection of victims.

• Law on amendment of the law on making and circulation of ethyl alcohol. Under existing provisions of Article 24 of the amended law, only businesses which hold licences import ethyl alcohol and alcohol production "through customs stations Ungheni, Palanca, Leuseni, Ocnita, and Otaci." Lawmakers decided on July 22, 2005, to extend the number of checkpoints for importation of these products, and added the customs stations "Giurgiulesti, Tudora and Sculeni". The chief of state did not promulgate the law, proposing to exclude some of these checkpoints and arguing his initiative through necessity to combat alcohol smuggling, which can be admitted through new customs stations inappropriately endowed.

  Opposition lawmakers did not support the proposals of the chief of state, describing them as groundless and invoking certain business interests of people close to the power, but the majority faction gave green light to initiatives of the president and excluded the Sculeni checkpoint from category of customs stations admitted for importation of alcohol and alcohol production.

• Law on modification of legislative documents on activity of bank sector. The law adopted by Parliament calls for setup of some mechanisms to ensure the transparency and to avoid the inadequate influence on activity of financial institutions in Moldova. Thus, the share of participation in banks' capital for persons from offshore countries and zones cannot exceed 50 percent of the total capital of the bank. In addition, the new provisions require that the majority of members of banks' boards be people unaffiliated to them, while majority of members of commission of censors be persons who do not work in these banks. They also stipulate the possibility of some additional controls of the National Bank of Moldova, which will approve beforehand the amendments on shares of participation in banks' capital.

  The declared goal of these amendments is to ensure the stability of bank sector, but it seems that these changes cannot be regarded separately of the recent events and statements of authorities concerning activity of bank institutions in Moldova.

• Law for modification of the Code of Penal Procedure. The Constitutional Court passed a ruling on July 19, 2005, outlawing provisions of many articles from the Code of Penal Procedure regarding obligation to declare the ordinary appeal or annulment only through lawyer. The Constitutional Court argued its ruling through fact that everybody must have access to justice while the obligation to appeal a lawyer is an indirect limitation of the right to defence, free access to justice, harms the principle of universality of rights, and creates premises for introduction of a monopoly on lawyers.

  The October 21 law amended unconstitutional norms, establishing that defendant, plaintiff, civil side, and other persons harmed by a court judgement can appeal to a higher court, calling on services of a lawyer, other persons who studied in the area or alone for this purpose, if education and qualification allow this thing.

Government

2.1 Reshuffles. Appointments

• Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin appointed Zinaida Greceanii as first deputy premier of Moldova, revoking her from the post of finance minister. Vasile Iovv, parliamentarian on behalf of PCRM, held this office until April 2005. Greceanii will coordinate the activity of executive institution in charge with economic-financial sector.

  Under Article 98 of Constitution, the cabinet of ministers comprises prime minister, first deputy prime minister, deputy prime ministers, ministers, and other members established through organic law. The Moldovan president revokes and appoints some members of the cabinet, at the proposal of prime minister in case of governmental reshuffle. As a rule, all functions of cabinet member must be established when the Parliament awards the trust vote, but this condition was not respected nor previously, with the chief of state and prime minister performing reshuffles in the structure of executive very often.

  In July 2005 Zinaida Greceanii bided for the post of mayor-general of the Chisinau municipality, garnering the highest number of votes at the elections invalidated because of low turnout.

• President Voronin appointed Mihail as Finance Minister. Pop held the office of deputy finance minister in the acting executive, and he had earlier headed the State Fiscal Inspectorate subordinated to the same ministry. Pop headed the Balti-based fiscal inspectorate in 1994-1999.

• The executive named former interior minister Nicolae Alexei, former director of the department for the struggle against organised crime and corruption, former parliamentarian and reserve major sergeant, as chief of the National Ecological Inspectorate.

  Earlier, the prosecutor's office had filed a penal case vs N. Alexei for committing violations while running the department for the struggle against organised crime and corruption. In summer 2001, the Parliament approved the withdrawal of immunity from lawmaker Nicolae Alexei in order to try him, and the Supreme Court of Justice examined the case until 2005, when N. Alexei was conventionally sentenced and acquitted later.

  Immediately after being acquitted, N. Alexei was elected chairman of the Party of Social-Economic Justice of Moldova, a political team which attended the March 6, 2006 elections and garnered 1.66 percent of the votes (25,870 votes).

2.2. Sittings. Decisions

Real taxes will grow

The executive analyzed on October 19, 2005 the level of preparation for implementation of the new system for taxation of real estate at real price. According to information provided by the Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre, prices of all apartments and 90 percent of private houses in the Chisinau municipality have been evaluated until now. Available data show that Moldova has 300,000 apartments, 250,000 private houses, 200,000 commercial facilities, and 1.75 million houses in rural area.

Under provisions of the Fiscal Code, new mechanisms for taxation of real estate, included the non-privatised ones, will be applied starting 2006, on basis of their real market price. The real estate tax is based now on estimated cost of real estate goods when they are built, minus level of use, which is often estimated below 60-80 percent.

The calculation and collection of real estate taxes rest with local public administration authorities. The tax accounts for maximum 0.5 percent of the taxable share (50 percent of the cost of real estate) and local authorities will be prohibited to establish taxes lower than 0.25 percent of this share. As for example, the taxable share for an apartment with a market price estimated at 20,000 dollars will be 10,000 dollars, while the annual tax (in dependence of share established in the settlement concerned) will be between 25 and 50 dollars. This sum is about 10-fold higher than the amount paid for a 2-room apartment in the Chisinau municipality at present.

It was earlier remarked that the Government proposes first the taxation of apartment owners, while owners of houses (estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars in big cities) will be taxed on basis of real price only after a period (1-2 years), when their total re-evaluation will be completed.

Performing Autumn Works

The prime minister was informed at a TV conference about autumn agricultural works. Local public administration authorities presented information regarding finalisation of harvesting of sunflower, with the production volume accounting for about 354,000 tons; global fruit crop is expected to be 410,000 tons, while of vegetable 815,000 tons (more than 200,000 tons of fruits and about 300,000 tons of vegetables have been harvested until now); slow seeding of autumn cereals and ploughing because of soil humidity.

The prime minister told local authorities and agricultural producers that the competent bodies undertake measures to improve the situation related to rise of fuels prices, though they admitted that the oil market of Moldova depends on situation on international and regional markets.

Filling stations reduced the prices of gasoline and Diesel oil by 0.50 lei on October 19. Within recent hearings in the Parliament, a representative of the Economics and Trade Ministry did not rule out the possibility of a new rise of fuels prices by late 2005, though the Government takes measures to reduce the negative impact of growth of these prices.

New strategies for subsidizing of farmers

A new draft regulation on subsidizing of agricultural producers was unveiled at a sitting convoked by prime minister, with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry. It calls for larger categories of subsidised crops and agricultural activities, as budgetary allocations for agriculture sector have significantly rose - up to 190 million lei in 2006 (60 million in 2005).

First agricultural census

The cabinet of ministers created a task force to prepare the first agricultural census within about two years. The need pf an agricultural census is indicated in the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP), but no financial resources for this purpose have been established so far. Spending for agricultural census is similar with expenses for population census.

2.3. Decisions

Reorganisation of traffic police

The executive decided to reorganise the traffic police in Moldova with the purpose to improve and enhance the efficiency of activity of this structure. A cabinet decision calls for amalgamation of some subdivisions, which function separately at present and reduction of the number of maximum personnel that counts for over 900 employees now. In addition, the executive decided to close up traffic police stations, except for two units in the North and South areas. The cabinet ordered the revision of criteria for selection of staffs for bodies of the Interior Ministry, criteria for appreciation of activity of traffic police officers, and limitation of groundless stoppage of transports.

The Moldovan president has recently demanded the Interior Ministry to take decisive measures related to its staff policy and activity of police bodies.

A similitude is interesting. Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko ordered last summer the closure of traffic police and all stations of this structure in Ukraine, and population saluted this measure. It was presumed then that similar measures are expected in Moldova as well, especially in the virtue of the latest deep cooperation relations between Moldovan and Ukrainian presidents.

Department for execution of court judgments

The cabinet of ministers approved on October 19, 2005 the regulation and structure of the department for execution of court judgments on civil, administrative and economic causes. The structure created on basis of the department with the same name of the Justice Ministry will comprise 500 employees and will be financed from the state budget, as well as from a special fund of execution system, where an execution tax of 5 percent of the real sum or value of goods will be transferred.

The need to improve the functioning of this department is cogent because existing data show that at least 40,000 court rulings remain unexecuted and this shortcoming is part of the most important count of indictment with which Moldovan citizens' appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

New mechanisms for estimation of social needs

The cabinet of ministers approved a new concept on improvement of social protection on basis of EGPRSP, which calls for granting of social services by taking into consideration of real value of beneficiary's incomes. The concept says that this estimation is difficult now because of the high share of shadow economy and undeclared incomes from remittances.

Another governmental decision on this issue calls for introduction of a mechanism for payment of normative compensations only after determining in what measure the beneficiary needs them. For this purpose, several pilot projects will be implemented in some districts of the republic in 2006. The normative compensations are paid now on basis of social status of person, and no real incomes of person or his family are taken into consideration. More than 200 million lei is allocated from the state budget for these compensations a year.

Administration of customs risks

The executive approved the concept of administration of risks in Customs Service, a document aimed to ensure a coordination of activity of all structures participating in collection and processing of information on individuals, business, transports, imported drugs, prices of goods, issued and annulled licenses, etc. Implementation of this concept will be preceded by a statistical analysis of the most frequent customs violations and elaboration of documents and measures that would reduce the inherent risks.

3. Presidency

3.1. Diplomatic rankings

The Moldovan president awarded diplomatic rankings of ambassador to Deputy Premier Andrei Stratan, minister of foreign affairs and European integration, and Reintegration Minister Vasili Sova.

3.2. Meetings. Working visits

Meeting with the acting OSCE chairmanship

Vladimir Voronin met with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel, who was on a special tour to Moldova and Ukraine. The talks focused on Transnistrian settlement issue, which captured a special attention in connection with latest measures undertaken in this regard: adoption of a new concept on settlement of the Transnistrian problem through a parliamentary consensus; outlining of Ukraine's role in the settlement process; introduction of an international monitoring on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. In the context, the chief of state spoke out about involvement of the European Union and United States in negotiations, as well as acceptance of the joint initiative of Moldovan and Ukrainian presidents regarding preparation and conduct of free and democratic elections under international monitoring by the OSCE chairmanship.

In addition, the sides tackled the issue regarding the final declaration of the December-scheduled Ministerial summit of the OSCE in Ljubljana, which the Moldovan authorities would like to include provisions on Transnistrian conflict.

Visit to Cahul district and Giurgiulesti terminal

While on a working visit to the Cahul district, the chief of state collected facts regarding the project on construction of a power station with a 450-megawatt capacity near the village of Burlaceni. The Russian company Itera will build the station, while the energy will be supplied to Moldova and exported to the Baltic countries.

The construction works will start in 2006 and the parliament had earlier passed a special law exempting the equipment needed to be imported for construction from customs duties and afferent fiscal taxes. The debates on this draft challenged negative reactions from parliamentary opposition representatives, who invoked the doubtful nature of this affair and obscure interests of some cabinet members for this draft. Although the parliamentary majority adopted the law, the president turned it down, invoking the unclear nature of norms and lack of documents projection needed for this purpose. Lawmakers accepted the objections of the presidency, annulling their own decision just on the day when the chief of state visited the construction concerned.

Vladimir Voronin studied the level of works for construction of the Giurgiulesti oil terminal. It was remarked that the terminal could receive and store the first cache of oil products from Azerbaijan in March 2006. The construction of fluvial port, stipulated by the same project, would place Moldova among states with maritime access, providing inherent economic advantages. The chief of state noted that an efficient cooperation is needed with the Azerbaijani partner Azpetrol, while the success of this project is a guarantee of consolidation of cooperation relations between Moldova and Azerbaijan.

In the context, it is worth to mention a recent Russian press report, which said that Azpetrol manager Rafic Aliev and his brother, who was recently relived from post of minister for external economic relations of Azerbaijan, were held in Baku on October 20. The manager of the biggest private oil company was held on political reasons, as well as on corruption-related charges.

3.3. Trips abroad

Official visit to Croatia

The Moldovan president paid an official visit to Croatia on October 12-13, and he had meetings with his Croatian counterpart Stjepan Mesic, speaker and premier of this country. The sides tackled aspects of bilateral and regional cooperation, implementation of existing interstate agreements.

Summit of Central Europe heads of state

• President Vladimir Voronin addressed the 12th summit of Central Europe leaders in Zagreb on October 14-15, 2005, and highlighted the importance of the European Union as "fortress of stability on continent, in which every European state wants to find its place." The Moldovan president noted that our country "is adjusting to defining criteria for plenary participation in the European integration process, with the European option being of interior policy, a motivation for continuation of reforms."

• Vladimir Voronin had a number of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from participating states within the Zagreb summit:

  He met with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, and discussed aspects related to intensification of political dialogue between the two sides, commercial-economic relations and importance to open a Czech Embassy in Chisinau.

  Within a discussion with Romanian President Traian Basescu the sides exchanged opinions regarding evolutions in the Transnistrian settlement process, as well as on economic problems of common interest.

  The Austrian president expressed the interest of business circles from Austria for extension of activities in Moldova, as well as support for Austrian authorities regarding political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.

  At a meeting with Poland's President Alexander Kwasniewski the sides remarked the contribution of the Polish authorities and support for implementation of the Moldova-E.U. Action Plan.

  Vladimir Voronin agreed with his counterpart from Bosnia-Herzegovina Ivo Miro Jovic on mutual visits of parliamentary and governmental delegations.

Economic Policies

1. Prices and inflation

Filling stations in Moldova lowered the prices of gasoline and Diesel oil by 0.5 lei (about 5 percent) last week, though importers of oil products have announced new price rises. The motivation of this internal price reduction is that importers have renewed their stocks for lower importation prices.

This is the first reduction of fuels prices this year, after six rises of prices in a row, so that they grew by over 50 percent in 2005. Being reflected in many production costs and consumer prices, the price cut is a good news for inflation rate, which could be lower in October than in September 2005.

2. Public finances

Over-plan budget collections...

Fiscal incomes to the national public budget of Moldova accounted for 5.63 billion lei (about 448 million dollars) after the first nine months of this year, by 1.6 percent more than planned for the same period. The national public budget includes incomes to the state budget, budgets of administrative territorial units, social insurance budget, and mandatory health insurance budget.

In particular, fiscal incomes to the state budget accounted for 1.8 billion lei in January-September 2005, budgets of administrative territorial units - 1.4 billion lei, state social insurance budget two billion dollars, and mandatory health insurance budget 287.3 million lei, by 0.5 percent less than planned.

...associated with historical debts of taxpayers

On the other hand, the Fiscal Service shows that debts of taxpayers towards national public budget amounted to 1.7 billion lei (about 135 million dollars) on October 1, 2005.

3. Real sector

Industry is on the rise...

Perhaps the Moldovan industry is on the rise after facing a crisis in late 2004 and early 2005. The industrial sector registered an average rise of 8 percent the past three months, and the industrial production grew by 10.2 percent in September.

According to data of the National Bureau for Statistics (BNS), the production volume rose by 6.1 percent in nine months of this year, up to 14.5 billion lei (1.15 billion dollars) in current prices. The growth pace is comparable with the pace registered in 2004, when the industry grew by 7.9 percent in January-September. The growth was mainly based on processing sector, which represents about 70 percent of the total industry, and played a primordial role in its evolution.

According to government's forecasts updated in August 2005, the Moldovan industry is credited with a 9-percent growth for 2006, up to 20.7 billion lei (1.65 billion dollars).

4. Commercial relations

Ukraine's presence in Moldova's external trade is on the rise...

The commercial exchanges between Moldova and Ukraine are very close to the commercial exchange between Moldova and the Russian Federation, which constantly topped the commercial partners of Chisinau after 1991.

Data of BNS show that the external trade between Moldova and the Russian Federation turned over 385 million dollars after eight months, and commercial exchanges with Ukraine accounted for about 371 million dollars.

Moldovan exports to the Ukrainian market rose a lot compared with the Russian market, respectively by 49.4 percent and 6.9 percent, while the difference of imports is insignificant. Imports from Russia rose by 22.1 percent in January-August, while imports from Ukraine grew by 20.4 percent. The reduction of Moldovan exports to Russia may be explained through interdictions of the latter against many Moldovan products, including fruits and vegetables.

The first 14 partner countries of Moldova regarding exports held 91 percent of the total of supplies to foreign markets, estimated at about 680 million dollars, while the first 14 states regarding imports held 86.3 percent out of a total of 1.39 billion dollars.

5. Moldova - European Union

The European Commission has released a first part of 1.2 million euros (18.15 million lei) from an unreimbursed financial assistance worth 9.2 million euros for implementation of the Food Security Programme in Moldova. The programme aims to promote reforms in three directions: public finances, social protection and agriculture sector.

The prime minister outlined that the allocation of this part is the first step forward implementation of the European Union-Moldova Action Plan and the Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. The money from this part will be mainly used to improve the living standards of children from boarding schools, to purchase irrigation equipment, and to modernise laboratories for checking of quality of agricultural production.

Transdnistrian Conflict

The period covered here has seen a series of preparations for the organisation of a new round of negotiations on the Transnistrian issue after a pause of more than one year. This will take place on 27-28 October 2005 in Chisinau, in the extended format with the participation of the US and the EU as observers.

On 11-14 October a large delegation from the Russian Federation paid a visit to Chisinau and Tiraspol to discuss issues related to the Moldovan-Russian relations and in particular the Transnistrian issue. The Russian delegation was composed of representatives of the Government apparatus, Security Council, Ministry of Economic Development, Gazprom, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc. The delegation was headed by the first deputy chair of the Security Council under the President of the Russian Federation, Yuri Zubakov, former Russian ambassador to Moldova in 2003-2004.

In Chisinau, the Russian delegation met with President Voronin, Prime Minister Tarlev, Foreign Minister Stratan, Reintegration Minister Sova, the leadership of the Moldova Gaz joint stock company.

According to the Moldovan President press service, during the meeting with the Russian delegation, President Voronin said that there were no contradictions in the relations between Moldova and Russia, and that the only unresolved problem is that of Transnistria. On the other hand, summing up the results of his visit to Chisinau, Yuri Zubakov told journalists in Tiraspol, as quoted by Infotag, that "there are serious problems" in the relations between Chisinau and Moscow and if " the Moldovan side tends to stress one single issue, that of Transnistria, we are concerned about several aspects ... including our economic-commercial relations, the historical roots of normal cooperation in general, which in real life are being eroded".

In Tiraspol the Russian delegation spent two days, during which they met with the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov, other Transnistrian authorities, and representatives of local businesses and of the Russian communities in the region. Yuri Zubakov said that the visit to Tiraspol did not have any political aims, but was an opportunity to examine the situation on the spot, understand people's real problems. The agenda of Tiraspol visit featured discussions of economic problems and problems related to the "social and political protection" of Russian citizens residing in Transnistria. According to the Russian Ambassador to Moldova, Nicolai Reabov, quoted by the Transnistrian official news agency Olvia-press, at present in Transnistria there are about 150,000 people willing to receive the Russian citizenship, which requires a facilitation of the citizenship procedure, and a series of measures are already being considered in Moscow in this sense. Such measures would comply with the recent change of attitude in Moscow towards compatriots living in the unrecognised states in the CIS area.

Observers in Chisinau have commented the visit of the Russian delegation as directly related to the upcoming negotiations round and intended to promote the recently proposed Russian plan on Transnistrian settlement. The plan reiterates many provisions of the so-called Kozak Memorandum and proposes the creation of a confederation between Moldova and Transnistria, granting the latter large competencies such as the right to participate in the foreign policy of the confederation, equal representation in the bi-chamber legislative, military guarantees from Russia.

During the same period Chisinau was visited by the OSCE Chairman in Office, Dmitrii Rupel, Slovene Foreign Minister. In Chisinau, he showed optimistic as to the resumption of negotiations in the enlarged format. "Now that such important factors of influence participate in the negotiations, it will be easier for us to advance ion the way to settlement", Rupel said. At the same time he reiterated that the OSCE will not monitor and will not recognise the elections to the Transnistrian legislative scheduled for this December, because they will not be democratic under the current circumstances and called upon the Transnistrian authorities to cancel the poll. Referring to the new Russian plan, Rupel said that it was "too radical" and granted "too much independence" to Transnistria.

If the plan will or will not be discussed at the 27-28 October talks, it is not yet clear. The mediators in the Transnistrian conflict meeting in Ljubliana on 21 October to discuss the agenda of the negotiations round gave little detail about this to the press. Elections in Transnistria, the EU border monitoring mission, the inspection of the Transnistrian military-industrial complex would be the subjects one would expect to feature on the agenda, unless a last-minute change of plans occurs as for example a new settlement plan on the negotiations table.

Foreign Affairs

Moldova regains right to vote in UNESCO

Moldova regained its right to vote in UNESCO, which it lost in 2001 because of membership arrears in the amount of 1.35 million dollars. Regain of the right to vote means a better image on the international arena, and possibility to table concrete proposals within sittings of representative institutions of UNESCO.

Moldova became member of UNESCO in 1992. Press releases announcing the event do not say whether Moldova has paid the arrears.

Settlement of the Transnistrian problem - a precondition for entry in E.U.

Guido Podesta, chairman of the E.U.-Romania Joint Parliamentary Committee, said in a recent interview with the Romanian publication Adevarul (True) that Moldova holds chances to join the E.U. if it is capable to settle the Transnistria problem. Moldova holds bigger chances to join the E.U. than Turkey, which is negotiating the adhesion conditions with Brussels, due to the small number of residents and limited territory.

The European official said that the Moldova-Russia relations are complicated, especially in the context of the Transnistrian settlement issue.

On the other hand, Podesta indicated the economic doctrine of the ruling Communist Party, which unfits the market economy principles, among internal problems of Moldova that should be solved before entry in E.U.

Guido Podesta is a member of the European Parliament since 1994, and he was deputy chairman of the European Parliament in charge with relations with candidate countries and Balkan countries in 1997-2004. Also, he had earlier held the office of co-chairman of the Moldova-E.U. interparliamentary cooperation committee.

OSCE support for Moldova

Moldovan Foreign and European Integration Minister Andrei Stratan met with OSCE Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel, foreign minister of Slovenia. Stratan solicited the inclusion of problems faced by Moldova - settlement of the Transnistrian conflict and withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova, in compliance with the commitments that the Russian Federation assumed at the 1999 Istanbul OSCE summit - in the final documents of the December-scheduled ministerial summit of OSCE in Ljubljana.

Studies, Analyses, Comments

Banks punished
Iurie Gotisan, 25 October 2005

The bank system in Moldova has visibly developed the past years in spite of a not very favorable external environment. Indicators of financial position of commercial banks have remained relatively high, while year 2004 confirmed this evolution one more time

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Parliamentary Imunodeficitar Syndrome
Sergiu Grosu, 25 October 2005

The Communist majority faction, with the votes of 54 lawmakers, gave green light on October 13 to requests of prosecutor-general to try a group of deputies who represent the opposition faction of the Alliance Our Moldova (AMN), including leader Serafim Urechean, under Penal Code

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