Public Policy Watch

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-272439962026-02-14T09:53:11.632+01:00Public Policy WatchPolitics - policies - politics: a vicious circle or a continuously constructive tension that brings about change and development in the public (political) and private (individual) spheres of our lives? This blog is a forum for discussing various policies in Moldova and abroad.<br><strong lang="ro">Bine ati venit pe blogul Public Policy Watch - Politici Publice in Moldova, unde va invit sa discutam diferite politici publice din Moldova si lumea intreaga.</strong>Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-72437142064285192962008-09-10T15:45:00.004+02:002008-09-12T17:02:41.013+02:00Welcome to My New Blog!

Finally, some of my ideas have begun materializing. For now, in a new blog. As promised, I am inviting you to visit my new blog which is about corporate social responsibility entitled Corporate and Responsible Blog .

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-50361745840487205662008-08-05T13:52:00.006+02:002008-11-18T06:34:23.980+01:00In Transition with Moldova

I haven’t done much blogging in the last months. There are several reasons for such an extreme case of procrastination. First, I’m not aware of any policy or initiative undertaken by prime-minister Greceanii and her government worth talking about. Secondly, I’ve been using Facebook to share my personal adventures and pictures during what is, most likely, my last summer in Moldova. Thirdly, I’ve

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-42667426289986985112008-04-01T09:37:00.015+02:002008-11-18T06:34:24.177+01:00Moldova's New Prime Minister: What to Expect?

After a seven-year-long disappointment with the leadership of Moldova's government - provided by the most-longevive Prime Minister, Mr. Tarlev - I can finally indulge in some optimism. The reason for such optimism is Moldova's new Prime Minister, Mrs. Zinaida Greceanii and her handpicked Cabinet of Ministers. Beside being a woman and bearing a physical resemblance to Margaret Thatcher , there

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-16231761127341466522008-03-28T16:27:00.003+01:002008-03-28T16:46:23.299+01:00Corruption Haunts Romanian Politics

Financial Times makes an analysis of the serious political impasse faced by Romania. In its effort to fight wide-spread high-level corruption, the public decision making process has suffered the most and has come to a deadlock. Public servants are so afraid of being subject to allegations of corruption that they’ve been abstaining from making any type of spending decisions. Civil servants are

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-33529276589347106682008-03-13T14:45:00.008+01:002008-03-14T01:24:45.010+01:00NATO Membership: Catch Me If You Can

The Moldovan President's recent interview to the Russian daily Kommersant made the headlines this week in local media. He announced that Moldova is soon to finally resolve the Transnistrian conflict with Russia's full support. Russia requires Moldova to do just one more thing: to prepare a declaration of neutrality and invite US, EU, OSCE, Russia and Ukraine to co-sign it. In other words, to

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-6713819800419839542008-02-21T09:57:00.006+01:002008-02-23T21:28:45.474+01:00Kosovo: Who Wants to Be in Serbia's Shoes?

As someone interested in world politics, I find the Kosovo case extremely interesting from several points of view. It is unique. No other conflict in Europe attracted so much attention, involved so many interests and raised such controversy in the post-communist era. It is new. This example of contemporary history in making brings about unprecedented combinations of events, decisions and

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-43070800422563308482008-02-08T12:21:00.000+01:002008-11-18T06:34:24.438+01:00Are Moldovan VIPs Really Very Important?

Today I came across an article about something I, too, have been pondering lately, namely a relatively recent fashion of identifying and ranking Moldovan VIPs, practiced by local mass media outlets. In this article, Vadim Tataru of the Civic Action wonders whether such ratings, instead of acknowledging real achievements and performance, in fact manipulate public opinion by creating the illusion

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-11329137349845483522008-01-28T14:17:00.000+01:002008-01-28T17:08:03.381+01:00Moldova's European Integration: How to Avoid Failure

The timeframe allowed for the implementation of the EU-Moldova Action Plan (EUMAP) is bound to expire soon. This makes Moldovan analysts and think-tanks attempt to reveal the reasons why the implementation of EUMAP has failed. To date, there is an overall consensus regarding the complete failure of the EUMAP. The latest study undertaken by analyst Dumitru Minzarari and IDIS Viitorul is a

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-23606616750908174732008-01-12T19:50:00.001+01:002008-11-18T06:34:24.577+01:00Managing Teleradio-Moldova: Truth or Libel?

Foto:www.deca.mdNow that the long Moldovan holidays are over, besides such events as abundant snowfall that made the traffic even more difficult, and the car accident caused by Mayor of Chisinau, I hear people talking and writing about failures. Failure to successfully implement laws, policies and plans, failure to reform public institutions, failure of Moldovan citizenry to demand a better

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-81729723962631734102007-12-10T15:40:00.000+01:002008-11-18T06:34:25.060+01:00Moldovan Democracy II: The Amazing Story of the Christmas Tree

Once upon a time, Chisinau Mayor issued a decision to have a beautiful Christmas tree installed in the central square of the city. The city agency in charge of such activities purchased the tree and installed it in the square. The municipal police was charged to guard and protect the Tree. However, in the morning, the Mayor and other city residents witnessed a miracle: the Christmas tree has

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-45583919725710378882007-12-10T10:39:00.000+01:002008-11-18T06:34:25.333+01:00Financial Times Joins Debate on Moldovan Identity

In the previous posting I discussed Furman's opinion regarding the quality of democratic institutions in Moldova. One thing I agree with him is the existence and continuous exacerbation of the Moldovan identity crisis. It is like an active volcano that occasionally erupts and triggers chains of decisions, events and actions in the public sphere, both domestically and internationally. One such

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-4532831009688339632007-12-05T13:56:00.000+01:002007-12-05T16:45:47.147+01:00Moldovan Democracy: How Amazing Is It?

I came across an interesting, yet somewhat controversial article Amazing Moldova by D. Furman. The author looks at the situation of democracy in Moldova from a different perspective and finds that Moldova's metamorphosis from a Moscow-ruled Soviet republic into an independent country is profoundly unique in the midst of the NIS area. Although Moldova has become neither a truly democratic state,

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-10192929185721077782007-11-09T16:18:00.000+01:002008-11-18T06:34:25.632+01:00CSR for Moldova: Too Soon, Too Late?!

Eurasia Foundation, American Chamber of Commerce and United Nations Development Programme in Moldova joined their efforts and organized an international conference Corporate Social Responsibility for Moldova on November 8 in Chisinau City. An outstanding fact is that this project was financed primarily from corporate sponsorship. Eurasia Foundation came with the idea, attracted two like-minded

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-10989457742058018622007-10-20T22:47:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:25.742+01:00Searching for Truth in Moldova

Lately, I’ve had a pressing desire to find reliable facts on several issues of public interest, or what media likes to call “scandals”. When I feel such need for truth, I remember a story of several blind men who attempted to describe an elephant. Each of them touched a different part of the elephant, and concluded that the elephant was, in fact, something that resembled 1) a big snake 2) a

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-13258063994277191292007-09-17T14:56:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:26.259+01:00Ukraine: Emerging as Regional ENP Leader

High level EU officials paid an official visit to neighboring Ukraine for the EU-Ukraine Summit last Friday, 14 September. The delegation included the European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and EU's top diplomat, Javier Solana. The mere fact that these two EU leaders visited Kiev is pretty important both for Ukraine and Moldova. Apparently, Ukraine emerges as a regional leader in EU

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-56008392156120926962007-09-10T09:12:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:27.152+01:00Week-end in Tiraspol

Transnistria is a must-see destination for foreigners visiting Moldova. At least this is what the guidebooks say. So, my friends and I decided to spend our Sunday visiting Tiraspol, the capital city of Transnistria. Today, Tiraspol is a quiet and green city of about 160,000 inhabitants, located on Nistru River. It was established by Alexandr Suvorov in 1792 as a fortress protecting the Christian

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-87636417358709398242007-08-30T20:01:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:27.629+01:00How Much Moldovans Love Their Country

Moldova’s Independence Day – 27th of August – serves an occasion for Moldovans to assess their level of patriotism and define their attitude towards their country of citizenship. A couple of local TV stations conducted random interviews with Moldovans, and the general conclusion was that too many people had a wrong idea or no idea at all about this important holiday. After sixteen years of

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-53184346342358869802007-08-20T16:42:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:27.739+01:00Action by and for Youth with Disabilities

An unusual event was launched today in Chisinau: Amprente Art Exhibition , which provides young people with disabilities the opportunity to display and sell their works of art and handicraft. This event is part of a broader Disability with Ability Campaign supported with American and Norvegian funds. Everyone who is interested in enjoying the creativity of Moldovan youth, and seeing the

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-21775066336817569532007-08-13T20:52:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:28.315+01:00Greece: A Model Tourist Destination

Greece was the destination of my vacation this summer. Still overwhelmed with the poetic beauty of the Cycladic Islands, I'd like to share my favorite pictures that will talk for themselves. Santorini islandColorful boats Oia at duskWorld-famous sunsetsDonkeys still around For more pictures, please see this slideshow

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-77880101072974936072007-08-09T15:28:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:28.637+01:00How Do Non-Profits Contribute to Moldova’s European Integration?

Although the biggest role in the implementation of EU-Moldova Action Plan is reserved for the Government, Parliament and Judiciary of Moldova, there is still a lot that non-profit organizations could do to help bring Moldovan society closer to European values, practices and standards. What could and should be done is up to the non-profits to figure out. For now, I will talk about an innovative

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-42022490844601371882007-07-19T09:50:00.001+02:002008-11-18T06:34:29.114+01:00The Moldovan Non-Profit Sector in Perspective

Am traveling to Belgrade, Serbia this week on a project that aims to develop a tool for assessing institutional and organizational capacities of non-profit organizations - or the non-governmental organizations - in the Western Balkans region. After first testing this tool among Serbian non-profits, the Serbian counterpart, ProConcept selected Moldova to test, and adjust this tool called INGOC

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-85281845627191806582007-06-27T08:31:00.000+02:002007-06-27T10:50:44.552+02:00Moldova's National Development Plan Open for Public Debate

For the last several years, anyone interested in understanding the Moldovan national development priorities and objectives, has been referred to the famous Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP), developed with the support of the World Bank. There is an entire site dedicated to this document. Initially, the Strategy was intended for 2 years (2004-2006) but due to already

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-51516574274012458222007-06-18T08:32:00.000+02:002008-11-18T06:34:29.412+01:00Chisinau City Has a Non-Communist Mayor

The results of the runoff elections for the mayor of Chisinau City are as follows:For Dorin Chirtoaca (pictured), the Liberal Party candidate, voted 61,17% of the electorate(130,181), and for the Communist candidate - 38,83 % (82,653 people). It is indeed a stunning result, Chirtoaca winning with over 22%! Given that my biggest concern was that the participation in the runoff elections would be

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-74101481142494821792007-06-11T17:00:00.000+02:002007-06-14T15:37:24.468+02:00European Union is on Guard, and Moldova Should Be, Too

The EU Observer published an interesting article on Moldova's role in the EU-Russia tensions. EU special envoy to Moldova, Kalman Mizsei, thinks that there are two scenarios for solving the Transnistrian problem: positive and negative - both with high stakes for EU and Russia. This means that EU keeps a strict eye on what's going on in Moldova in terms of Transnistrian conflict resolution, and

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27243996.post-2244143173196614042007-06-05T09:51:00.000+02:002007-06-09T02:55:36.635+02:00Local Elections in Moldova Create Opportunities for Change

The general local elections in Moldova held on Sunday, June 3, brought about the following developments: 1.Overall participation in the elections was low in comparison with previous years, and represented 48%. In Chisinau City participation was even lower (30%) 2.Although still the top-choice of Moldovan electorate, the popularity of the ruling Communist party is declining. (From 40% of mayoral

Luciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11741209960003411470noreply@blogger.com5