Authorities want NGOs to participate in lawmaking with realistic proposals

Civil society is asked to be more active in analyzing the draft laws proposed to the Government and to participate in all the stages of their preparation with realistic proposals. The call was made during the workshop organized by the National Participatory Council (CNP) on increasing the efficiency of CNP members’ participation in the lawmaking process, today, August 9, Info-Prim Neo reports. Natalia Valcu-Bajurean, senior consultant at the division for development of normative acts, said that civil society should be more active and braver when proposing improvements for draft laws. The specialist declared that civil society representatives should involve in all the expertise stages of draft laws and not to stop there where their proposals were rejected. The representative of the Ministry of Justice added that NGOs should specialize thoroughly in the development of draft laws and the proposals should be realistic and applicable, especially financially, in Moldova. “It often happens that civil society comes up with good proposals, inspired by international practices, but our country doesn’t have the financial backing for them”, explained Natalia Valcu-Bajurean. During the workshop, it was said that it would be better if civil society helped to develop draft laws and with the routine works. For example, a lot of time and energy is spent on translating the draft laws into Russian. Civil society representatives who attended the workshop agreed that they could involve more in developing the cost-benefit analysis of proposed draft laws, because authorities don’t always have the necessary experts or resources.