Four young men criticized the way in which the authorities unfolded 'The Youth Year' in Moldova. At a news conference hosted by Info-Prim Neo news agency, on December 24, two days before a forum in Chisinau where the results of the drive will be drawn, the youths called 'The Youth Year' an populist action of the Government in an pre-electoral year, marked by arresting a number of youths at protests and by seizing the computers of 12 forum writers. “The Youth Year has been an electoral action of the Communist Party,” is the title of a communique signed by the four ones. The Economist Adrian Lupusor remarked that the Program on Economic Support for Youth of the Government has made successes, but it “may lead to the failure of the young entrepreneurs”. Although the Government launched a national program “Dwellings for everyone”, the new law on mortgage adopted in August 2008 does not provide for bonuses for young families to get mortgage contracts, said Adrian Lupusor. The four ones have said the program on supporting the youths to get employed is one of the big failures of the Youth Year, since the number of young unemployed within the total number unemployed rose last year. “Over one million citizens left for abroad as hundreds of children remained at home without parental care. These generations of teenagers may cause serious social problems in the years to come as the crime rate could grow,” said Tudor Darie, an expert in youth policies. “Some of the youths pardoned by president Vladimir Voronin could return to jail without a lack of social integration,” Darie added. According to him, although the authorities brace for inaugurating the Republican Center for Children and Youth in Chisinau, “the offices for youth NGOs there could be distributed by political criteria.” Nicolae Toderas, an expert in education, has called on the political parties not to apply the new Education Code recently adopted by the Parliament. “The code is not correlated with the new trends in education and is oriented against the youth, since they will not be able to adapt to the EU and international labor market,” Toderas said. In conclusion, the youth recommend the new Government in 2009 to set up a youth ministry and to substantially increase the budget allocations to the youth. 2008 was declared the Youth Year by the Moldovan authorities, after an idea of president Voronin. 2009 will be the youth year in the CIS, as Moldova will hold the presidency of this structure.