Policy Paper: Parliamentary development in the framework of Moldova’s Europeanisation process

Authors: Erik SPORTEL (CESS), Iulian GROZA (IPRE)

Introduction

This paper reviews the parliamentary development process in the Republic of Moldova (hereinafter Moldova), against the background of the European Union’s (hereinafter the EU) democracy support policy, Moldova’s changing political landscape, and commitments to implement the Association Agreement with the EU.

The paper begins with a brief overview of the current Moldovan political landscape and continues by introducing the EU’s view on democracy support and parliamentary development.

The paper then identifies the main needs and challenges for parliamentary development in Moldova, which in turn leads to a set of key recommendations for the EU and Moldovan policy makers.
The most important findings of the paper are the following:

• EU democracy support for Moldova should explicitly include a parliamentary dimension;
• More attention is needed on capacity-building in Moldova’s parliament (including other actors such as political parties), with the aim of developing a culture of transparency and accountability;
• Investigating options for stronger affiliation of individual parliamentarians with constituencies;
• Taking measures to boost the transparency of the legislative process;
• Helping to strengthen parliament’s rules and procedures with a view to strengthen democratic oversight; and

Initiating an awareness-raising and training campaign for members of parliament (MPs) in order to develop their knowledge on the implementation and oversight of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement provisions.