45 residents from Fălești, Briceni, Râșcani and Glodeni districts met on Monday, April 25, with the MPs from the Parliament of Moldova and representatives of the Parliamentary Constituency and Information Offices (PCIOs) within the eighth regional parliamentary forum "Dialogue with citizens".

The forum was attended by MPs Elena Gudumac, member of the parliamentary commission for culture, education, research, youth, sports and media; Valentina Buliga, chairwoman of foreign policy and European integration commission; Valerian Bejan, member of the parliamentary commission for economy, budget and finance; Tudor Deliu, vice president of the legal commission, appointments and immunities; but also Ștefan Mocănaş, head of the Department information in the territory within the Moldovan Parliament Secretariat, and Stela Belitei, head of PCIO from Edineţ. The forum is organized to enhance communication between citizens - representatives of local authorities, civil society - and MPs. Also, during the event, people share their everyday issues with the lawmakers of the country. Moreover, citizens from the northern part of Moldova have come up with concrete proposals to improve legislation. In turn, MPs were interested to answer to all the questions and recommendations of citizens, regardless of the subject.

Thus, the main topics addressed were initiatives related to social protection for different categories of citizens, economic and educational system development at local level, but also insufficient communication between central power and the local one. The MPs, in turn, assured that the proposals from citizens and the solutions identified during the discussions will be considered by the them to initiate legislative projects.

MP Valentina Buliga welcomed the initiative to hold the forum, because "only through a consistent and sincere dialogue with people we can provide support in the development of the country, both nationally and locally." The MP also said that the initiative to increase the quality of social services is still ongoing, but enunciated and others, as "offering a grace period of three years for individual enterprises newly launched; income tax exemption for companies that hire young specialists, to provide the opportunity to use the potential of youth; reducing the taxes for the families with two or more children."

Another topic discussed was the community service work performed by beneficiaries of unemployment allowance. In this regard, MP Valerian Bejan said that is an issue addressed at all meetings of the territory, especially since is the season of public works. "Maybe it would be necessary to find a mechanism which would allow the unemployed persons to carry out this work after the qualification they have," said the MP.

MP Elena Gudumac came with a series of proposals for improving the situation of children with disabilities. "I think a good solution would be training teachers in terms of the needs of these children, so to give them as much as possible care and attention and to not be discriminated", said Elena Gudumac.

During the forum was held and a section devoted to legislative news examined in parliamentary committees. MPs informed the participants about the legislative initiatives currently promoted in the Parliament.

Referring to the situation of local public administration, MP Tudor Deliu said that this sector needs a comprehensive reform. "Over the past years, we try to come up with legislative initiatives to facilitate and boost the development of local public administration. It is important that these laws to be applied and implemented correctly, thus here is important not only the quantity of the laws, but also their quality," said the MP.

Also, citizens were encouraged to cooperate with the Common Platform of Women MPs from the Moldovan Parliament, but also with the Parliamentary Constituency and Information Offices, which are open to facilitate communication between citizens and Parliament.

Regional forum is organized with the support of UN Programme "Women in Politics", in partnership with the Common Platform of Dialogue of Women MPs and Parliament's Secretariat. At the end of each forum is formulated a summary of the discussions that will be submitted for review to the MPs from the Parliament. So far, similar parliamentary forums were held in Orhei, Leova, Edinet, Ungheni, Comrat, Ialoveni, Calarasi and Soroca. 

UN Programme "Women in Politics" is implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with East-Europe Foundation and the Centre "Partnership for Development", financed by the Government of Sweden.