The draft Culture Law was approved by all the parliamentary commissions and is to be examined in Parliament. It contains 40% of new provisions and 60% of provisions from the old law, IPN reports.

In the debates on the bill, acting Minister of Culture Boris Focsa said the amendments made to the law are an imperative of time. “The existing legal framework was really good. It helped us preserve culture for over 20 years, but we now need certain changes. Initially, we proposed amendments to the old law, but they were rejected by the Ministry of Justice because they represented over 33.3% of the law. Thus, we drafted a bill,” he explained.

According to Boris Focsa, it is very important to specify the areas where the state should provide subsidies and implement projects to support culture and develop culture industry. “The state should be 100% present in libraries, museums and education institutions. If we get our priorities straight, we will facilitate the development of culture,” said the acting minister.

Bill author, MP Ghenadie Ciobanu said the new law remains a framework law.  “This law cannot complement certain protection and financing mechanisms, but relevant provisions will be included in other documents that will derive from the law. They will be found in the Penal Code and the Code of Administrative Offenses,” he stated.

He also said that the new provisions refer to the work of the homes of culture and to everything that means culture in settlements. “There should be defined the role of culture in villages and how culture should be developed there. It will be in the community’s interest to support the cultural activities and money will be also allocated from the state budget. Some of the cultural institutions may enjoy maintenance concessions if their contribution to the social-cultural development of the settlement is described comprehensively,” said Ghenadie Ciobanu.

A number of regulations will be worked out after the bill is adopted, including the framework regulations concerning the functioning of public institutions of culture, the regulations governing the activity of homes of culture, and the regulations on modern management in the field of culture.