National Participative Council Meets for the First Time 

On Tuesday the National Participative Council held its first meeting, which was attended by Prime Minister Vladimir Filat. 

The Prime Minister saluted the creation of the NPC and said that the Government intends to deepen the cooperation with the civil society on policy paper analysis practically, not just declaratively, and relies on the advice and proposals coming from the NGO members of the committee as to how to improve the legal and normative framework regulating the performance of the Cabinet of Ministers. Vladimir Filat is hopeful that a mechanism for productive cooperation between the Government and NPC will be developed at ministerial level. The Prime Minister also mentioned that the Government will examine and approve in the near future the relevant government decisions to enforce the Law on transparency in decision making and the Law on access to information. 

Prime Minister introduced to the NPC members the Government coordinator of the dialogue between the Government and NPC Ruslan Codreanu, head of Policy, Strategic Planning and External Assistance Division.
Sorin Mereacre, Country Director, Eurasia Foundation Moldova, was elected by the NPC members chairman of the council, while Ecaterina Mardarovici, head of the public organization Women’s Political Club 50/50 was elected deputy chair of NPC. According to the Prime Minister the chairman of the NPC will take part in the Government meetings and other meetings of the members of the Cabinet of Ministers, as well as in certain official delegations of the Republic of Moldova abroad. The NPC Standing Bureau was also elected. Its members will be Sergiu Ostaf, (public organization Resource Center of NGOs for Human Rights in Moldova), Petru Macovei, (Independent Press Association in Moldova), Antonita Fonari, (Young and Free, Resource Center), Alexandru Coica, (National Youth Council in Moldova), Dinu Armasu, (Foreign Investors Associations). 

The NPC members mentioned that their work will focus on three key directions – identification of problems in the performance of public institutions, consultation of public policy proposals and development of a plan of priority issues to be addressed and examined by Government. The NPC members asked the members of the Government and State Chancellery to identify a mechanism that would allow more time for consultation of drafts of government decisions by NPC. In this regard, the NGOs representatives spoke of the development and launch of a NPC website to achieve efficiency in the communication mechanism, and until that happens of the use of the Government official website, www.gov.md, for posting the drafts under the heading National Participative Council.
The National Participative Council was created and attached to the Government of the Republic of Moldova as a consultative body, without legal person status, to ensure participation of civil society in policy development, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and revision. The NPC had 30 members and its composition was approved through Government Decision.