At the meeting, the government approved a draft law which sees that the Balti municipality will be given the status of second-level administrative and territorial unit. Present, the Balti city has the status of first-level administrative and territorial unit.
In this context, Prime Minister Vlad Filat has said that the draft law is meant to get the de jure situation in line with the de facto one. Filat specified that the concerned legislative deficiency dates back from 2003, when the Balti municipality was not included in the list of second-level administrative and territorial units.
The document is to be submitted to the parliament for consideration and approval.
Also today, the cabinet adopted a decision on the okaying of a draft law on the ratification of an agreement between Moldova and the European Union on amendment of an accord between Moldova and the EU on visa issuance facilitation, signed in Brussels in June 2012. The accord proposed for ratification offers more facilities to Moldova's citizens, among which: increasing the number of categories of people who may benefit from facilities when getting justifying documents on travel's purpose, and who may enjoy long-term multiple-entry visas, rising the number of people who benefit from tax exemptions, abolition of the visa regime for holders of business biometric passports, etc. The enforcement of the signed agreement does not imply financial spending and will have no negative repercussions on the Moldovan economy.
Also, the cabinet approved the starting of talks to sign a protocol between the Moldovan and Polish governments on the applicability in the relations between the two countries of the bilateral international agreements signed between the Soviet Union and Polish Popular Republic in 1944-1991. The Foreign and European Integration Ministry said that, after getting the independence, Moldova reserved the selective right of applying these agreements, while taking into account the national interests. Thus, the accords between the two sides in the tourism sector and cooperation in the field of suppression of illegal acts of interference with the activity of the civil aviation are still up-to-date and will be enforced by succession.
The government gave Health Minister Andrei Usatii full powers to sign an agreement between the institution he leads and the Kazakh Health Ministry on cooperation in the health sector and medical science. The accord will enter into force for a five-year period on the date of its signing. This document will define the main areas and forms of collaboration, and will facilitate the establishment of direct cooperation relations between the medical institutions and medical education institutions from both countries.
The cabinet members approved a draft law on the amendment and completion of a law on juridical regime of adoption, as well as of the civil procedure code. The operated amendments are meant to optimize the legal basis on the carrying out of the adoption procedures, including as regards the accrediting of foreign organizations with powers in the field of international adoption in Moldova, specifying the categories of adoptable children, especially in the case of children with special needs, shortening the term after which children with special needs may be adopted via international adoption, etc. Labour, Social Protection and Family Minister Valentina Buliga stressed that the provisions of international acts, good practices in the concerned sector were taking into account while working out this draft law.
Also today, the government okayed a draft law on the amendment and completion of the law No 245-XIV from 21 July 2006 on the organization and work of the national commission for collective consultations and negotiations, branch- and territorial-level commissions for collective consultations and negotiations. The draft's goal is to improve the present system of social partnership.
Another draft law approved by the government today sees ratification of an agreement on publication of information between Moldova and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association, signed in Chisinau on 15 May 2012. Finance Minister Veaceslav Negruta said the agreement is aimed at enhancing the transparency of public spending, and its implementation does not imply financial commitment on behalf of Moldova.
The government also approved a draft law on ratification of an accord between the Moldovan and Romanian cabinets on cooperation in the military sector, signed in Chisinau on 20 April 2012. The cabinet also ruled to initiate talks on a draft agreement on cooperation between the Moldovan Agency for Regulation of Nuclear and Radiological Activities and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.
The cabinet okayed a string of decisions in the agro-food sector. Thus, the government approved a norm of establishing a procedure for the notification of interception of a harmful transport or organism from other countries, and which poses an imminent phyto-sanitary danger, ways of analysis for the control of fodder and requirements regarding the quality and placement of multiplication materials for ornamental plants on market. Agriculture and Food Minister Vasile Bumacov said the concerned normative acts are meant to adjust the national normative framework to the international standards in the area.
At the end of the meeting, the government heard a report on the social and economic situation in the Balti municipality, presented by Balti mayor Vasile Panciuc. He welcomed the cabinet's decision to give the status of second-level administrative and territorial unit to the Balti municipality. Panciuc emphasized that, in these conditions, the need to organize a local referendum on the extension of the autonomy status to the Balti city might be ruled out.
The participants in the government meeting also agreed upon the working out of a joint action plan of the State Chancellery and the Balti local administration to settle the problems of this municipality's residents.
