OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2014. Parliament Speaker Igor Corman met the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s co-rapporteurs for the Monitoring Committee, Lise Christoffersen and Piotr Wach, on a fact-collecting visit to Moldova.

The officials tackled parliament’s priorities for the autumn session, justice and prosecution reforms, cooperation with the Venice Commission, domestic political situation, regional context and the parliamentary polls due in next November, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.

The sides exchanged opinions about the Transnistrian region and measures undertaken by the authorities, to bolster confidence between the two banks of Dniester. The officials also approached the activity of the working group on considering issues of the special status of the Moldovan southern autonomous region (UTA Gagauzia).

Igor Corman reviewed the legislative priorities for the autumn session, among which the financing of political parties, anti-tobacco laws package, quota of women’s participation in politics. Corman also stressed the authorities’ determination to rectify the state budget, in order to help the Moldovan producers face the difficult situation emerged in the wake of the economic sanctions imposed by Russia.

Referring to the goal to complete the procedure of Moldova’s monitoring by the Council of Europe, Corman underlined that the target of Moldova in relationship with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was very clear. „Our interest is to have democratic, free and fair elections on 30 November and after these polls to have a pro-European government, which will speed up the implementation of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement, that will help us fulfil the obligations taken towards the Council of Europe and to switch to the post-monitoring phase,” Corman said.

The European officials highlighted that Moldova was in a very important moment for its future and emphasised the importance to organise democratic, free and fair elections. „The best thing for Moldova is to ensure a political system due to allow adopting good laws, meant to contribute to the country’s democratic edification,” Lise Christoffersen.

The PACE co-rapporteurs informed that the prepared monitoring report would be presented to PACE after the parliamentary polls, due in late November 2014.