40 residents from Soroca, Ocniţa, Floreşti and Camenca districts met on Monday, April 18, with MPs of 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 the MP Marina Radvan, member of the parliamentary committee on culture, education, research, youth, sports and media; Elena Bodnarenco, member of the committee public administration, regional development, environment and climate change; Elena Hrenova, member of the parliamentary commission for social protection, health and family; MP Valerian Bejan, member of the economy, budget and finance committee; Victor Rosca, member of the agriculture and food industry committee, but also Ștefan Mocanas, head of the Department information in the territory within the Moldovan Parliament Secretariat, and Stela Belita, head of the PCIO from Edineţ. The forum is organized to enhance communication between citizens - representatives of local authorities, civil society - and MPs, but also to be heard their problems by the lawmakers of the country. Moreover, the 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 their subject.

Thus, the main themes addressed by the citizens were initiatives related to the regional development, infrastructure modernization of the localities from Moldova, social protection for different categories of citizens, economic development and education at the local level, but also insufficient communication between central power and the local one. The MPs, in turn, assured that the citizens` proposals, the solutions identified in the discussions will be considered by them, so to initiate legislative projects.

Regarding the issue of granting social benefits, Elena Bodnarenco said that legislation should be tightened and "measures should be envisaged so that people receiving social aids to be more responsible. Is currently being drafted amendments to the Law on social assistance."

MP Elena Hrenova referred to the issue of gender equality and urged women to involve more in politics and decision making processes. "Parliament has provided the necessary legal framework, voting on April 14 the bill no. 180, amending and supplementing certain legislative acts to ensure gender equality. We must get involved everywhere. And lets also to involve others."

Another MP Valerian Bejan stated that the citizens are actually those who mandates the MPs to draft and pass laws for their benefit, whether legislative initiatives are coming from the parliamentary majority or from the opposition. "MPs must find the golden middle between citizens and authorities, so people's lives to be improved," said Valerian Bejan, who was also vice-president of the Telenesti district.

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

MP Victor Rosca said "that the initiatives proposed by the lawmakers should aim to create the necessary comfort of citizens, including at the infrastructure level".

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 and Calarasi.

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.