On October 24, 2022, the representatives of the Secretariat of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova and Secretariat of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia met to discuss how to strengthen cooperation and institutional capacities in support to the Parliamentary Working Group on Gagauzia. The meeting was facilitated by CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation within the “Gagauzia Dialogue” project. CMI international and national legal experts and experts on autonomy issues from Eurac Research from Bolzano/Bolzen, Italy attended the meeting.
CMI national and international experts guided the participants through the general principles of cooperation and the role of the Secretariats within the Parliamentary Working Group (PWG) process. They also mapped out the technical process and necessary support for the PWG dialogue platform.
It is important that the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Working Group is institutionalised and the internal structure of the Secretariat is confirmed by a formal decision. I believe that a strong Secretariat with a clear mandate can better support the efficient functioning of the dialogue platform elaborating and drafting decisions based on the priorities set by the Parliamentary Working Group.
stated Ion Creanga, the Head of Legal Directorate General
During the meeting, the participants discussed the general principles of cooperation and role of the Secretariats to support the Parliamentary Working Group on Gagauzia, did the mapping of the technical process identifying the needs how to improve the process. Secretariats also discussed the legislation drafting methodologies used in the technical process both at the national and local level.
I believe that within the Secretariat of the Working Group the role of each member should be established. And for the results to be tangible, it is necessary to have dispute settlement mechanism when we need to overcome disagreements and find joint solutions.
declared Ivan Burgundji, Advisor to the People of Assembly of Gagauzia’s Speaker on political and legal issues
The international experts from Eurac Research shared the South Tyrol experience and outlined the international practices on Legal dimension of the distribution of competences bringing the example of South Tyrol, the Basque Country, the Aland Islands, and Wales.
In South Tyrol’s success story, the capacity has been the clue in all the commissions and bodies. Time is another issue. Procedures are the ground to discuss all the conflict issues. If procedures are clear then everything can be addressed.
mentioned Elisabeth Alber, Research Group Leader, Eurac Research
The international experts reiterated that even though we could learn a lot from good practices from other contexts, it is really important to be creative and try looking for solutions that fit better to Moldova context. Also, for a good functioning of an autonomy, the legal and institutional dimensions must be strongly interconnected.
The participants agreed to continue the dialogue in the current format in order to ensure the sustainability of the parliamentary dialogue process on Gagauzia from the technical perspective and identified, the next steps for future cooperation.
