The IPU participated in a national Workshop, hosted by the Moldovan Parliament on 3 and 4 April in Chisinau, to help strengthen parliamentary oversight of the security sector. The Workshop followed the publication of the highly successful handbook for parliamentarians on the same subject, developed by the IPU and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and currently available in some 30 languages, and aimed to familiarise parliamentarians and others working on security issues with some of its key messages. Apart from parliamentarians from defence, foreign affairs, budget, and legal affairs committees, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of the Interior, the Attorney General, the National Auditor and ministerial staff and representatives of NGOs working on security issues were in attendance.
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The themes of the Workshop focused on all aspects of parliamentary oversight, in particular with regard to national security policy, the defence budget, oversight of the intelligence services and "best practices" of parliamentary defence committees. The former Estonian Minister of Defence and currently member of the Estonian parliamentary defence committee brought home the message that Moldova stands much to gain from the lessons learnt in the Baltic States and in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, with a view to clearing some of its current security hurdles.
Apart from the Transdnistrian question, Moldova faces major security challenges in training its security sector and in securing proper equipment. The Moldovan Parliament has started to engage more actively in the domestic security debate. It has set up investigative committees and has used hearings, including with the Minister of Defence, to exercise better oversight. Nevertheless, despite its increasing prominence, there is still a sizeable gap between the Parliament and the executive when it comes to decision-making and shaping the debate on security matters. There is the hope that the meeting in Chisinau, accompanied by the dissemination in Parliament of the IPU-DCAF Handbook, in both Romanian and Russian, may contribute to overcoming some of these difficulties.
The national Workshop just held in Moldova is part of a series of parliamentary exercises, at both the national and regional levels, devoted to the question of ensuring democratic oversight of the security sector.
