Gagauz Parliamentarians Suspended Dialogue with Moldovan Parliament

The members of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia decided to suspend the joint group cooperation with the Moldovan parliament until the latter adopt the package of Gagauz bills. Previously President Igor Dodon promised that the laws would be adopted until December 23, when they celebrate the 25th anniversary of the autonomy. However, that was during the coalition with Bloc ACUM, which then ruptured. The members of the Gagauzian People’s Assembly at their last meeting on December 10T made a decision to suspend the joint group cooperation on delimitation of powers of the Gagauz autonomy. President Igor Dodon promised to adopt the Gagauz bills for the 25th anniversary of the Gagauz autonomy. At a meeting with the head of Gagauzia Irina Vlah in October 2019, he assured that he would do everything possible to do this. However, it was when the socialists were in a coalition with the Bloc ACUM. Then the coalition ruptured and the socialists formed a minority government with the support of the Democratic Party. The Socialists will not have enough votes to pass these bills. They will need either the Democratic Party or the Bloc ACUM support. Gagauz bills In 2015, Moldovan Parliament created an inter-parliamentary working group, which included five members from the Moldovan parliament and the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia. The main task of the group was to delimit the powers of autonomy and central authorities. In 2016, the members of the parliament developed three bills. One of them regulates the entry and exit of settlements from the Gagauzia. Another involves the establishment of a special level of government for autonomy in the system of local public administration (for the moment Gagauzia belongs to the second level of government and is a region of Moldova). The third one suggests that Parliament cannot amend the law on special legal status of Gagauzia without the consent of Comrat. After the bills were submitted to parliament, they were not discussed for about a year. In June 2017, the parliamentary legal commission redid the documents. As a result, the parliamentary majority of Moldovan parliament adopted two of the three drafts in the edited form within two readings. The third draft was also changed, but it was approved only in the first reading. After consulting with the leadership and members of Gagauzian parliament President Igor Dodon refused to promulgate the draft laws in the edited version and reported the bills out. After that, no one discussed them for more than two years. NewsMaker