On 27 March 2018, the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, holding its 34th Session in Strasbourg (France), adopted a recommendation on the fact-finding mission on the situation of local elected representatives in the Republic of Moldova that was carried out in Chișinău on 13 December 2017. The mission aimed at gathering information about the situation of the suspended Mayor of Chișinău, Dorin Chirtoaca, was carried out at the request of the Monitoring Committee and initiated by complaints formulated by the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM).
Presented by the co-rapporteurs Marc Cools (Belgium, ILDG) and Gunn Marit Helgesen, (Norway, EPP/CCE), the report highlights that the situation of local democracy has substantially deteriorated in Moldova since the last Congress monitoring report (2012) and the way the local recall referendum was carried out, targeting the Mayor of Chișinău entailed the dysfunction of local governance in the capital city and more broadly affected the functioning of local democracy. The rapporteurs expressed their concerns regarding the lack of clear legal basis to suspend a local elected representative and the inadequacy of consultation with the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova (CALM). In the report they allege a violation of art. 8.3 of the Charter (principle of proportionality in the control of local government bodies).
“This situation clearly goes against the requirements of art. 3.2 of the Charter on the freely elected members of councils or assemblies on the basis of direct, equal, universal suffrage” stated Marc Cools. Therefore the Congress recommends to examine the Court proceedings against local elected representatives and to revise the Moldovan legislation, and notably the Electoral code, to ensure that local elected representatives manage their municipalities freely and are not exposed to judicial harassment.
