Weekly Roundup
August 21 - August 27
Welcome back to Moldova Matters! Subscribe to get our Weekly Roundup and other content sent right to your email! And consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work at Moldova matters. For just $5 / month, the price of a nice coffee, you can support this work and help us expand into even better content!
Happy Independence Day Moldova!
Today, August 27, 2021 Moldova turns 30! People will celebrate in Chisinau with various socially distanced or remote events including a Military Parade in the center of the city. Joining President Sandu at the festivities will be 3 other heads of state including the presidents of Romania, Ukraine and Poland. We’ll talk a bit more about Independence Day and how Moldova is celebrating in the Ending on a High Note section below. But sincerely from Moldova Matters, Happy Independence Day Moldova!
Parliament’s Legislative Bonanza
After many rounds of public consultations in the past weeks, parliament passed a raft of major legislation this week.
First up, was the Prosecutor General, who, as we have discussed in the past, has vehemently opposed any reforms to his office. The new law provides for a mechanism whereby the actions of the Prosecutor General (or lack thereof) can be reviewed yearly by a special commission. The special commission will be formed for the task composed of the following: one member proposed by the President, one by the Ministry of Justice, one by the Superior Council of Magistracy, one by the Superior Council of Prosecutors and one by the Prosecutor General. The commission will have the power to dismiss the Prosecutor General for unsatisfactory work. Additionally, the law allows for the Prosecutor General to be suspended in the case that they themselves are under active criminal investigation. Prosecutor General Stoianoglo sharply called out these reforms saying that they are “lawless” and that his mandate cannot be removed even if the law is passed (if was, and he can). He has appealed to the Constitutional Court over the matter.
In his speeches decrying this process, and continuing to imply he is being fired based on racial bias, he also took great umbrage at the fact that Parliament did not like his most recent report on his investigation into the Theft of the Billion. The report, which was extremely short (around 5 pages) detailed work such as “we held 17 meetings on such and such subjects.” Parliament noted it had no results, no convulsions, no prosecutions and that 7 years was an awfully long time for so little to be done.
Given the passage of this law, and lacking a surprise intervention by the Constitutional Court, it seems that our days of writing about Mr. Stoianoglo’s indignation at how he has been treated are coming to an end.
Next Up, the National Anti Corruption Center. Parliament passed a bill allowing for the direct appointment of the head of the National Anti Corruption Center by Parliament. This bill bypasses a “competitive hiring” mechanism that mandates the most qualified candidate (on paper) be given the job. PAS has noted that this most often means that hidden interests and oligarchs stack the competition with their candidates, noting the incumbent in the office is a close associate of Mr. Dodon. The current leadership of the National Anti Corruption Center protested saying this leads to a weakening of the rule of law. The law passed overwhelmingly. Following its passage, the Minister of Justice stated that parliament will now review and fire the current leadership of the agency and suggested that they resign with some dignity before this happens.
Next, the Supreme Council of Magistrates and Supreme Council of Prosecutors. These two bodies provide institutional oversight to their respective professions. This week, parliament reformed both groups aimed at strengthening the integrity of both bodies. The reform requires that no members have had criminal cases or other disciplinary action taken against them in the last 3 years. Further, for the members appointed by parliament in the bodies the law now requires a ⅗ voting threshold for the appointment. This was suggested by the Venice Commission, the advisory constitutional law body in the Council of Europe, as a way to assure that neither body can have political (one party) appointments.
In addition to the major justice reform measures passed this week, parliament also approved a new customs code designed to bring Moldova further into EU compliance at the border. This new code increases fines for certain types of smuggling - especially regarding intellectual property, and clarifies documentation procedures. Finally, the bill restricts the operations of all duty free shops to airports and seaports. This means that all duty free shops on land crossings will be closed when their licenses expire in Dec 2022.
And parliament wasn’t done yet!! They also passed a new law regulating state property. Specifically, this applies to state owned buildings and seeks to make the process of privatizing them more transparent. Additionally, the law allows the state to rent properties for a term of 3 years. This is a very big deal for companies and could free up the real estate market quite a bit as the state owns lots of old buildings all through Chisinau and around the country. The current law only allows for year to year contracts with no guarantees of renewal terms. In practice, this means that if a company rents a building, say to open up a cafe, they have no guarantee they will be able to keep it a year later even if they invest in renovations. Furthermore, by dealing with bureaucrats as their landlord there are many opportunities for corruption in this process. Finally, all state contracts must be conducted in Moldovan lei where private rental contracts are always in euros to hedge against currency fluctuations. With 1 year contracts, the state has a tendency to rather erratically swing rental rates year to year. 3 years creates a much more predictable environment for both parties and cuts down on corruption potential.
All in all, this is quite a week for Parliament with lots of major and some minor legislation passing in a hurry - especially when you consider this is a short week with the national holiday and a 5 day weekend.
The Government is also at Work
While Parliament was in their legislative bonanza, the Prime Minister met with the IMF which has agreed to provide a loan of $236 million dollars to Moldova without preconditions. Prime Minister Gavrilita noted that this money will be used to help stabilize the government budget and to provide support for small business that has been hard hit by the pandemic crisis.
The Prime Minister also announced the beginning of plans to simplify and digitize state processes with a new service called M-Delivery. Currently, companies and individuals may order many types of important documentation online via M-Pay to process online payments. But then they must physically go to the various state offices and wait in line for their paperwork. M-Delivery is designed to take these papers right to a person’s business or home and save money and time both for the state agencies and individuals. It’s not full e-document delivery, nor is it as simple as simply putting something in the mail. So it remains to be seen just how this system will work and if it makes sense to have a dedicated certified mail service. But whether or not it’s the most elegant solution, it is undoubtedly a very helpful one for any person who has needed to stand in endless hours of lines just to get a piece of paper.
Foreign Affairs
This week President Sandu traveled to Kyiv to participate in the new “Crimean Platform” event hosted by the Government of Ukraine. At this event representatives of 45 states convened including the Presidents of Estonia, and Latvia, the Prime Minister of Sweden, and various government representatives from many other states. Ukraine outlined 5 issues that are a priority in the conference. 1) Non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea by Russia, 2) the expansion of sanctions against Russia, 3) international security in the Azov-Black Sea region, 4) the protection of human rights in Crimea, and 5) the environmental and economic consequences of the annexation of Crimea by Russia.
At the event, President Sandu made statements recognizing Crimea as Ukraine and reaffirming that Moldova is a country committed to Peace and Diplomatic solutions. She noted Moldova's strong belief in a rules based order and vulnerability in an unstable region. Specifically, she said that the rules based order outlined in the UN charter and other founding international documents is crumbling in the region and some actors wish to return to a world governed by force alone.
Not to miss an opportunity for irony, the Russian government responded by saying that participation in this conferences is an “attack on the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.” The Socialist Party in Moldova largely agreed, making statements that participation in this conference might negatively affect relations with Russia… though they did not go so far as to recognize Crimea as Russian.
On the sidelines of the conference President Sandu met with her counterparts in Estonia and Latvia to discuss bilateral issues. Of particularly high priority was discussing cooperation with Estonia to learn from that country’s high level of government digitization.
All Moldovans Out of Kabul
All Moldovan citizens are safely out of Afghanistan and were evac’d this week on a flight to Pakistan where they will transit back to Europe.
COVID-19 Update
The pandemic situation in Moldova continues to worsen with a 7 day average of 391 cases and 7 deaths daily. With the start of school this coming week the government has been very focused on putting in place mitigation strategies to prevent, or slow down, more spread in the fall.
Back to School… Not Without a Shot
The Minister of Health has set out new guidelines for school reopening. She noted that schools will be able to set their own requirements based on local and regional conditions. This would govern mask mandates and whether or not to transition to remote learning. All schools however have the following requirements:
95% Vaccination rate by Oct 1 - The ministry strongly recommends a 95% vaccination rate for all school employees before Oct 1. This does not apply to students as children are not eligible for the vaccine in Moldova. Exactly what “strongly recommends” means is unclear, but it seems the enforcement mechanism will be that….
Unvaccinated teachers and staff must test every 2 weeks at their own expense - Vaccines are free and readily available in Moldova. Any teachers or staff who choose not to get one must pay for COVID tests at their own expense every 2 weeks.
No First Bell celebrations - All celebrations marking the beginning of the school year are canceled. This usually includes concerts and large gatherings.
These decisions created immediate backlash against the idea of teachers having to test at their own expense. The Socialist Party called on the government to pay for this testing itself stating that 800 lei / test or 1600 lei / month is a HUGE portion of a teacher’s salary - up to half in some areas. This is an exaggeration as the Minister of Health clearly stated an expected cost of 200-300 lei per test implying that rapid antigen tests are acceptable (not only the more expensive PCR tests). While the Socialists seem to have intentionally exaggerated here, they have a point, teachers are not well paid in Moldova and these are serious costs for them. The teachers' union has also made strong protests calling this discriminatory and saying that there need to be religious or other exceptions in the rule. The union has appealed to the Prime Minister to overrule the Minister of Health.
Responding to this criticism, the Minister of Health has made it clear that the state cannot and should not carry the costs of all this testing. She stressed that the vaccine is free, available and safe. She further noted that a person’s freedom not to be vaccinated does not equal their freedom to infect others at school. Finally, time and again this week the minister responded to criticism saying that it cannot be the burden of the vaccinated to pay for the unvaccinated’s tests.
There have been reports of teachers beginning to resign due to the new restrictions.
In the capital, Mayor Ceban has noted that 75% of school staff are currently vaccinated (compared to 30% of the population overall) and he is encouraging the remaining staff to get vaccinated as soon as possible. He expressed hope that they can keep the schools open this fall noting the serious challenges in online learning.
Problems with Vaccine Certificates
This week, travelers to Spain were shocked to find that their airline did not accept their vaccine certificates and required them to present a negative test as well. The Moldovan travelers said that when they booked tickets they were told they didn’t need a test if they were vaccinated and that Spain does not require one for entry since the country recognizes Moldova’s vaccine certificates. The airline apparently had some other policy which caused multiple people to miss flights. Now the airlines are refusing refunds.
It seems that some growing pains are inevitable with new systems like this, but stories like these are sure to create uncertainty and worry among the vaccinated who hope to travel with their vaccine certificates in hand.
Moldova to Test for Variants
The Minister of Health has announced that they now have all the equipment to independently test for new COVID strains in Moldova without relying on German labs. This labrewtory is being set up and should be active in October. In the short term, this will allow Moldova to better understand what percentage of infections are the delta strain which is assumed to be the majority of new infections. In the long term, as new variants emerge, this capacity will help the ministry respond more quickly to the evolving threat.
Economic Update - A Good(ish) Grape Harvest
This year, Moldova’s grape harvest is projected to be 15-25% higher than last year but still more than 30% lower than the 5 year average. This serves to stress just how damaging the drought was last year for the wine industry. The report on the wine industry went on to note that exports of Moldovan wine have declined overall with a 10.8% drop in bulk wine exports in the past year. Luckily, there was a 10% increase in bottled exports at the same time. While declining exports are not good, it does show a continuing shift in the wine industry away from bulk shipments of cheap wine to higher value bottled wine sales.
While this report has somewhat mixed news overall, the main takeaway is fairly sobering. Moldova is at extremely high risk of climate change driven droughts. Last year’s drought was hugely damaging to the nation’s most important strategic industry and very little is being done to prepare for future climate driven dry spells.
Crime and Corruption - Mr. Shor’s Trial Drags On….
The Supreme Court of Justice issued a surprise ruling this week to transfer Ilan Shor’s case from the Cahul Court of Appeal to the Chisinau Court of Appeal. This process will likely cause the case which has dragged on for 3.5 years to be restarted in a new trial. This may sound more damaging than it is since the case really hasn’t progressed at all in Cahul. Shor’s lawyers have requested, and inexplicably been granted, 60 delaying motions in that time. Often the court will simply meet once every few weeks to agree not to continue the trial for a while and go home. The new Minister of Justice expressed concern over this change of venue and the Supreme Court of Justice’s ruling. Prosecutor’s office also expressed concern, saying the case was in its final stages and now must be started again.
Ending on a High Note!
So it’s Independence Day in Moldova? How is it being celebrated? Well, in Chisinau soldiers from the Balti, Cahul and Chisinau garrisons will join veterans of the Transnistria war in a military parade. But what has been really surprising this week is to hear how the Moldovan Foreign Service has been working with partner countries around the world to celebrate Moldova’s 30 years of independence. In Dublin, 6 Moldovan flags have been flying in the center of town on the Halfpenny Bridge for a week. In Brazil, the Moldovan tricolor will be projected onto a large pyramid shaped building in the center of town. But taking the cake is Canada who will illuminate the Moldovan tricolor onto Niagara falls today, a move suggested by the Moldovan Embassy and approved by the Niagara Parks authority.
President Sandu gave a speech this morning congratulating Moldova on 30 years of independence. In it, she noted that Moldova remained a young state, but that in the last 30 years the country had learned. Sometimes through many mistakes, how it is to be independent. She talked about how people came to understand the power of their vote and their own responsibility for the nation. The president concluded:
“Today's world is changing fast. The future is neither promised nor certain, but I know in my heart that we will succeed. Our country has bright, hardworking and good people and only with them has a future. Long live, dear fellow citizens. Happy birthday to the Republic of Moldova!"
And consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work at Moldova matters. For just $5 / month, the price of a nice coffee, you can support this work and help us expand into even better content!