Politics
U.S. MCC accepts Moldova for 2007 Compact
Reading Time: 5 minutesMillennium Challenge Corporation Board of Directors Announces: 2007 Compact Eligible Countries: Moldova, Jordan, and Ukraine
On Nov. 8, 2006, the Millennium Challenge Corporation Board of Directors announces that Moldova, Jordan, and Ukraine are 2007 Compact Eligible Countries.
Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) today selected three new countries to join the 22 nations now eligible for development assistance from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
Moldova, Ukraine, and Jordan were chosen to begin the process of applying for Compact assistance. Since its establishment in 2004, MCC has approved Compacts totaling nearly $3 billion with 11 countries: Armenia; Benin; Cape Verde; El Salvador; Georgia; Ghana; Honduras; Madagascar; Mali; Nicaragua; and Vanuatu. MCC is also actively engaging with other eligible countries to assist them in Compact development.
Each November, MCC’s Board of Directors meets to select countries eligible to develop a proposal for assistance under the MCA. The assistance program is designed to reward good performance and also to create incentives for countries to adopt policies that create a foundation for poverty reduction and economic growth.
“Because of their ongoing commitment to good governance as well as sound economic and social policies, our newly eligible countries demonstrate that they are, in fact, taking necessary steps to create, reinforce, and maintain a policy environment in which MCC’s aid can help them reach specific goals of poverty reduction,” said Ambassador John Danilovich, MCC’s Chief Executive Officer. “Compact-eligibility is the reward for pursuing good policies. These countries are now invited to begin the process of creating their Compacts to reduce poverty,” he added.
MCC measures policies in all candidate countries using 16 independently measured and transparent benchmarks known as indicators, which have a demonstrated link to poverty reduction and economic growth. These indicators measure countries’ demonstrated commitment to policies that promote, among other things, political and economic freedom, investments in education and health care, control of corruption, and respect for civil liberties and the rule of law. MCC is using two supplemental indicators this year to evaluate performance on countries’ commitment to promoting sustainable natural resources management policies.
Once selected as eligible, countries begin a consultation process that includes citizens, nongovernmental organizations, and representatives of the private sector and government to identify the barriers to poverty reduction and economic growth. MCC teams then work in partnership to engage with countries on their Compact proposals to ensure that projects meet economic growth and poverty reduction targets. A Compact also describes how the country plans to manage and implement its MCA program, including how it will ensure financial accountability, transparency, fair and open procurement, and measurable results. Selection as an eligible country does not guarantee funding.
Many countries have identified land tenure and agriculture projects, micro-lending programs, and improvements to irrigation systems as well as water and sanitation services as priorities in efforts to reduce rural poverty. Other countries have proposed building industrial parks, a trade school, health clinics, rehabilitation of roads, ports, and railroads as key to improving access to markets and jobs. Better roads also have the benefit of improving access by people to schools, health clinics and other essential services.
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Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. Government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and elimination of extreme poverty.
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Moldova Background
The Government of Moldova initiated a national anti-corruption strategy in December 2004. To implement this strategy, Moldova has focused its efforts on enactment of numerous laws, including amendments to the criminal code and new laws on political party financing, conflict of interest, public procurement, and a code of ethics for public servants. Moldova has requested MCC funding to address areas where corruption persists, including in the judiciary, the health care system, and the tax, customs and police agencies. Moldova’s strategy recognizes that civil society and the media play a role in spotlighting corruption, and the government has requested assistance for these groups to ensure proper monitoring and evaluation of the government’s performance. In January 2006, an anti-corruption alliance of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) was formed reflecting civil society’s attention and concern about the issue.
Threshold Program Overview
With a two-year budget of $24.7 million in MCC assistance, Moldova seeks to reduce corruption in the public sector through judicial reform, reform of health care and tax, customs and police agencies, and reform of the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC).
Improve the capacity of the judiciary to prevent and combat corruption:
• Develop and implement a secure automated case management system;
• Develop enforceable codes of conduct, including conflict of interest provisions and disciplinary measures for judges, attorneys and court personnel; and
• Make all court records, including pleadings, evidence, motions, records of proceedings, and opinions, available to the public.
Strengthen the monitoring capacity of civil society and mass media:
• Provide grants, training, and technical assistance to NGOs to monitor government anti-corruption reform efforts; and
• Create a public-private working group to issue recommendations to increase the role of mass media in monitoring anti-corruption reforms.
Prevent and curb corruption in the health care system:
• Develop internationally acceptable standards for diagnostic and treatment protocols, and protocols for purchasing drugs and medical equipment; develop a code of conduct for medical personnel;
• Establish criteria for budget priorities and releasing budget information publicly to increase transparency of health care financing and develop audit training and procedures for health sector managers; and
• Establish citizen oversight boards. Establish a national center of health sector ombudsmen.
Prevent and control corruption in tax, customs, and police bodies:
• Create a national information center to provide tax forms and advice to taxpayers;
• Create a fraud prevention division within the fiscal service to improve its cooperation on investigations and prosecutions with anti-corruption law enforcement institutions and improve training on professional and ethics standards;
• Improve recruitment, evaluation, and ethics code implementation systems in the Customs Service, and initiate improvement within the Internal Security Section to initiate and conduct internal corruption investigations;
• Introduce the new Computerized Transit System, and create an independent team to monitor and report on corruption at border crossings; and
• Launch an integrated informational system at the Interior Ministry’s guard units located in all regions of the country and sectors of Chisinau to collect and transmit information about acts of corruption in police bodies.
Strengthen efforts of the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCECC):
• Create a single department for investigations at CCECC to improve information sharing;
• Create an independent civilian board to monitor the activity of the CCECC and to advise the CCECC director;
• Build capacities of the witness protection unit in the Ministry of Internal Affairs; improve whistleblower protection statutes;
• Introduce a system for reporting acts of corruption among civil servants;
• Make CCECC budget information available to the public, and
• Strengthen CCECC’s public education program by developing an anti-corruption information strategy and public relations campaign together with civil society and the mass media.
Highlights of Expected Results of the Moldova Threshold Program:
• Reduce bribes connected with getting favorable judicial decisions;
• Improve public reporting of corruption cases by Moldovan media;
• Reduce the extent to which the health care sector is affected by bribes and other corruption; and
• Reduce corruption in the tax administration, customs service, and police including payment of bribes by business owners.
Implementing Partners:
The U.S. Agency for International Development will be the lead U.S. Government agency implementing the Moldova Threshold program. It will be assisted by other U.S. agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice
A new football club has earned a leading place in the UEFA Champions League groups and starred in the headlines of worldwide football news yesterday. The Football Club Sheriff Tiraspol claimed a win with the score 2-1 against Real Madrid on the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. That made Sheriff Tiraspol the leader in Group D of the Champions League, including the football club in the groups of the most important European interclub competition for the first time ever.
International media outlets called it a miracle, a shock and a historic event, while strongly emphasizing the origin of the team and the existing political conflict between the two banks of the Dniester. “Football club from a pro-Russian separatist enclave in Moldova pulls off one of the greatest upsets in Champions League history,” claimed the news portals. “Sheriff crushed Real!” they said.
Moldovans made a big fuss out of it on social media, splitting into two groups: those who praised the team and the Republic of Moldova for making history and those who declared that the football club and their merits belong to Transnistria – a problematic breakaway region that claims to be a separate country.
Both groups are right and not right at the same time, as there is a bunch of ethical, political, social and practical matters that need to be considered.
Is it Moldova?
First of all, every Moldovan either from the right or left bank of Dniester (Transnistria) is free to identify himself with this achievement or not to do so, said Vitalie Spranceana, a sociologist, blogger, journalist and urban activist. According to him, boycotting the football club for being a separatist team is wrong.
At the same time, “it’s an illusion to think that territory matters when it comes to football clubs,” Spranceana claimed. “Big teams, the ones included in the Champions League, have long lost their connection both with the countries in which they operate, and with the cities in which they appeared and to which they linked their history. […] In the age of globalized commercial football, teams, including the so-called local ones, are nothing more than global traveling commercial circuses, incidentally linked to cities, but more closely linked to all sorts of dirty, semi-dirty and cleaner cash flows.”
What is more important in this case is the consistency, not so much of citizens, as of politicians from the government who have “no right to celebrate the success of separatism,” as they represent “the national interests, not the personal or collective pleasures of certain segments of the population,” believes the political expert Dionis Cenusa. The victory of FC Sheriff encourages Transnistrian separatism, which receives validation now, he also stated.
“I don’t know how it happens that the “proud Moldovans who chose democracy”, in their enthusiasm for Sheriff Tiraspol’s victory over Real Madrid, forget the need for total and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Transnistria!” declared the journalist Vitalie Ciobanu.
Nowadays, FC Sheriff Tiraspol has no other choice than to represent Moldova internationally. For many years, the team used the Moldovan Football Federation in order to be able to participate in championships, including international ones. That is because the region remains unrecognised by the international community. However, the club’s victory is presented as that of Transnistria within the region, without any reference to the Republic of Moldova, its separatist character being applied in this case especially.
Is it a victory?
In fact, FC Sheriff Tiraspol joining the Champions League is a huge image breakthrough for the Transnistrian region, as the journalist Madalin Necsutu claimed. It is the success of the Tiraspol Club oligarchic patrons. From the practical point of view, FC Sheriff Tiraspol is a sports entity that serves its own interests and the interests of its owners, being dependent on the money invested by Tiraspol (but not only) oligarchs.
Here comes the real dilemma: the Transnistrian team, which is generously funded by money received from corruption schemes and money laundering, is waging an unequal fight with the rest of the Moldovan football clubs, the journalist also declared. The Tiraspol team is about to raise 15.6 million euro for reaching the Champions League groups and the amounts increase depending on their future performance. According to Necsutu, these money will go directly on the account of the club, not to the Moldovan Football Federation, creating an even bigger gab between FC Sheriff and other football clubs from Moldova who have much more modest financial possibilities.
“I do not see anything useful for Moldovan football, not a single Moldovan player is part of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. I do not see anything beneficial for the Moldovan Football Federation or any national team.”
Is it only about football?
FC Sheriff Tiraspol, with a total estimated value of 12.8 million euros, is controlled by Victor Gusan and Ilya Kazmala, being part of Sheriff Holding – a company that controls the trade of wholesale, retail food, fuels and medicine by having monopolies on these markets in Transnistria. The holding carries out car trading activities, but also operates in the field of construction and real estate. Gusan’s people also hold all of the main leadership offices in the breakaway region, from Parliament to the Prime Minister’s seat or the Presidency.
The football club is supported by a holding alleged of smuggling, corruption, money laundering and organised crime. Moldovan media outlets published investigations about the signals regarding the Sheriff’s holding involvement in the vote mobilization and remuneration of citizens on the left bank of the Dniester who participated in the snap parliamentary elections this summer and who were eager to vote for the pro-Russian socialist-communist bloc.
Considering the above, there is a great probability that the Republic of Moldova will still be represented by a football club that is not identified as being Moldovan, being funded from obscure money, growing in power and promoting the Transnistrian conflict in the future as well.
Photo: unknown
Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Natalia Gavrilita, together with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicu Popescu, pay an official visit to Brussels, between September 27-28, being invited by High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles.
Today, Prime Minister had a meeting with Charles Michel, President of the European Council. The Moldovan PM thanked the senior European official for the support of the institution in strengthening democratic processes, reforming the judiciary and state institutions, economic recovery and job creation, as well as increasing citizens’ welfare. Natalia Gavrilita expressed her confidence that the current visit laid the foundations for boosting relations between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union, so that, in the next period, it would be possible to advance high-level dialogues on security, justice and energy. Officials also exchanged views on priorities for the Eastern Partnership Summit, to be held in December.
“The EU is open to continue to support the Republic of Moldova and the ambitious reform agenda it proposes. Moldova is an important and priority partner for us,” said Charles Michel.
Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita also met with Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economy, expressing her gratitude for the support received through the OMNIBUS macro-financial assistance program. The two officials discussed the need to advance the recovery of money from bank fraud, to strengthen sustainable mechanisms for supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in Moldova, and to standardize the customs and taxes as one of the main conditions for deepening cooperation with the EU in this field.
Additionally, Prime Minister spoke about the importance of the Eastern Partnership and the Deep Free Trade Agreement, noting that the Government’s policies are aimed at developing an economic model aligned with the European economic model, focused on digitalization, energy efficiency and the green economy.
A common press release of the Moldovan Prime Minister with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the Commission, Josep Borrell Fontelles, took place today, where the agenda of Moldova’s reforms and the main priorities to focus on in the coming months were presented: judiciary reform; fighting COVID-19 pandemic; promoting economic recovery and conditions for growth and job creation; strengthening state institutions and resilience of the country.
“I am here to relaunch the dialogue between my country and the European Union. Our partnership is strong, but I believe there is room for even deeper cooperation and stronger political, economic and sectoral ties. I am convinced that this partnership is the key to the prosperity of our country and I hope that we will continue to strengthen cooperation.”
The Moldovan delegation met Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice. Tomorrow, there are scheduled common meetings with Oliver Varhelyi, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement, Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport and Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Prime Minister will also attend a public event, along with Katarina Mathernova, Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Photo: gov.md
Politics
Promo-LEX about Maia Sandu’s UN speech: The president must insist on appointing a rapporteur to monitor the situation of human rights in Transnistria
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, pays an official visit to New York, USA, between September 21-22. There, she participates in the work of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a press release of the President’s Office, the official will deliver a speech at the tribune of the United Nations.
In this context, the Promo-LEX Association suggested the president to request the appointment of a special rapporteur in order to monitor the situation of human rights in the Transnistrian region. According to Promo-LEX, the responsibility for human rights violations in the Transnistrian region arises as a result of the Russian Federation’s military, economic and political control over the Tiraspol regime.
“We consider it imperative to insist on the observance of the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation regarding the withdrawal of the armed forces and ammunition from the territory of the country,” the representatives of Promo-LEX stated. They consider the speech before the UN an opportunity “to demand the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Russian Federation with reference to this territory which is in its full control.”
“It is important to remember about the numerous cases of murder, torture, ill-treatment, forced enlistment in illegal military structures, the application of pseudo-justice in the Transnistrian region, all carried out under the tacit agreement of the Russian Federation. These findings stem from dozens of rulings and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Russia is responsible for human rights violations in the region.”
The association representatives expressed their hope that the president of the country would give priority to issues related to the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region and would call on relevant international actors to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms throughout Moldova.
They asked Maia Sandu to insist on the observance of the obligation to evacuate the ammunition and the military units of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, to publicly support the need for the Russian Federation to implement the ECtHR rulings on human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, and to request the appointment of an UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur to monitor the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.
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The Promo-LEX Association concluded that 14 out of 25 actions planned within the National Action Plan for the years 2018–2022 concerning respecting human rights in Transnistria were not carried out by the responsible authorities.
The association expressed its concern and mentioned that there are a large number of delays in the planned results. “There is a lack of communication and coordination between the designated institutions, which do not yet have a common vision of interaction for the implementation of the plan.”
Promo-LEX requested the Government of the Republic of Moldova to re-assess the reported activities and to take urgent measures, “which would exclude superficial implementation of future activities and increase the level of accountability of the authorities.”
Photo: peacekeeping.un.org
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