Law Approximation Mechanism in the Republic of Moldova

The experience from new EU Member States undoubtedly is that to be ready for membership of the European Union is not only a political and economic question but also, a legal one. EU law and legal approximation of national laws should therefore not to be underestimated.

This paper aims to present the national mechanism of harmonization of Moldovan legislation with the European Union’s one, based on Republic of Moldova obligations assumed under the bilateral agreements with the European Union, as well as those being currently in the negotiation process. Also, this paper aims to give a brief description of the process of law approximation in the Republic of Moldova, to offer several theoretical and practical clarifications regarding the concept of legal approximation and last but not least to show the importance of legal approximation in the process of European integration of our country, which demonstrates the actuality of the subject.

The association process with the European Union is at the same time a transition and modernization process considering that it implies speeding up the transition with improvement of the order and stability in the economy and society, assistance in overcoming the obstacles such as economic monopolies and political interests and of course improvement of the competitiveness of the economy1. These goals cannot be achieved without new and amended legislation and, before that, the clear political commitment. The first step in the process of becoming closer to the European Union was the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, concluded between Moldova and the European Communities and their Member States on November 28, 1994, with common institutions, and its implementation in the years that followed2. This agreement proofs that adaptation to EU law is becoming a serious task in the fulfillment of foreign obligations assumed by the Republic of Moldova. The next step related to legal approximation is the present negotiation (already closed) with the EU of a new bilateral document named the Association Agreement and another document that will be a part of AA – EU - MD Agreement on Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (already closed). After signing and entry into force of these agreements, implementation and enforcement of their provisions will require the establishment of joint Moldovan – European Union institutional bodies to follow implementation, especially regarding the legal approximation in the priority areas.

Following the experience of the new Member States of the European Union (Romania, Bulgaria) as well as the current candidate countries (Croatia), if and when Moldova will officially apply for membership of the European Union, the Council will request the European Commission to prepare an opinion on the Moldova application. When this happens, our country will receive from the European Commission a Questionnaire with thousands of questions related to different areas and responsible authorities will have to provide clear and concise answers which shall be the basis for a decision on possible candidate country status. Every year an annual report of European Commission shall present the progress on legal approximation. After a decision on beginning of the negotiations is adopted, screening of legislation on all negotiated chapters will be carried out, followed by negotiations on all chapters. After the completion of negotiations follows a post-negotiations phase which is used for signing and ratifying the accession treaty as well as carrying out the last approximation activities before membership. While establishing a functioning system of coordination of the European integration, it is most likely that on commencing out accession negotiations country would develop a comprehensive document called „National Plan for Adoption of the Acquis” or „National Plan for Legal

1 Centre for Legal Approximation with the financial support of the EU TACIS Project „Support for the Implementation of the Agreements between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union”, Methodology for Law Approximation in the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, 20102 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States and the Republic of Moldova, November 28, 1994, ratified by Decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova No 627-XIII from November 11, 1995, published in the „International Treaties”, special edition, 1999, Vol. 10, p. 127

Approximation”, defining national priorities through developmental and strategic objectives, adequate policies, reforms and measures needed for the implementation of these objectives, a detailed plan for legal approximation, institutional capacity building needs, human and budget resources, other funds needed for the implementation of the planned tasks.

Law approximation priorities should be defined through proper planning and clear coordination and allocation among ministries, departments and experts. After all, it must be clear who is responsible for transposition and implementation of each EU act, because the legal approximation, in its broader meaning, including the effective implementation and enforcement of the national approximated legislation, is the most important condition for closer economic and political relations with European Union and the most demanding task in the whole process of cooperation. To draft a law or a normative act is a real challenge and very difficult thing to do, but to incorporate and to ensure the enforcement of an EU legal act into the national legal system is an even greater challenge. Because of that it is very important, before drafting a law, to develop a proper policy planning and after drafting a law, to ensure that implementation and enforcement are mandatory.

The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement came into force in 1998 for an initial period of ten years, after which it is automatically renewed by consent of the both Parties. This agreement establishes the legal and institutional framework for bilateral relations between the Republic of Moldova and European Union; it sets the main objectives and calls for activities and dialogue in a number of policy areas. Also, the agreement provided for cooperation in a range of areas including in most of those which involve an element of legal approximation. In this context, the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement already provides for Moldova’s obligations with regard to law approximation in art. 50 – Moldova committed to ensure that its legislation will be gradually made compatible with that of the Community. More detailed and strictly regulated obligations regarding the legal transposition and legislative approximation will be established in the future AA and DCFTA, which are currently negotiated by the republic of Moldova. It is important to remark that almost all of chapters of these agreements are already closed, and Moldova keeps hoping that these documents will be signed this autumn at the EU Summit in Vilnius, together with EU-MD Agreement on visa liberalization. Eventually, this may be followed by an expressed intention to join the European Union, which then results in the requirement for full transposition of the EU legislation. In this context, considerations of EU law will become a larger part of the day-to-day work of Moldovan state officials involved in lawmaking process. This will apply both to the preparation of new draft laws and the amendment of existing ones. In practice, if we use a purely legal approach concerning the PCA, we could deal with a juridical paradox, that there is no EU legal act with which Moldova must harmonize. Namely, all PCA provisions that address the issue of legislative approximation are general in nature and politically binding but have no direct effect in relation to the direct establishment of rights and obligations in the internal legal order. But on the other side, there will be no further progress towards EU integration without progress on law approximation. Thus, we can conclude that already now there are obligations (as for example consequences of the membership of the South-East Europe Energy Community and efforts in negotiations to conclude Association Agreement) which require great efforts in law approximation. The future Association Agreement will include clear tasks not only on establishing a Free Trade Area, but also on legal reform in other specific sectors, a jointly established monitoring system, followed by annual reports from the European Union on implementation of the agreements3.

Of course, it is important to remark the European Neighborhood Partnership Action Plan, which was adopted in 2005. The EU – Moldova Action Plan is a political document laying out strategic objectives of the cooperation between Moldova and the European Union. It covers a timeframe of three years and its implementation should help to fulfill the provisions of the

3 Centre for Legal Approximation with the financial support of the EU TACIS Project „Support for the Implementation of the Agreements between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union”, Methodology for Law Approximation in the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, 2010.

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Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, as well as to encourage and support Moldova’s objective of further integration into European economic and social structures. Implementation of the Action Plan should contribute to significantly advancing the approximation of Moldovan legislation, norms and standards to those of the European Union.

Another important document that has already entered into force is EU-MD Agreement on Common Aviation Area, signed in Brussels at June 26, 2012 and which provides in its Annexes a list of EU acts that have to be transposed in the national legislation of the Republic of Moldova and corresponding deadlines.

Also, clear obligations regarding the transposition of the EU legislation in the national legal system of Republic of Moldova are established in the Protocol of Accession of the Republic of Moldova to the Treaty establishing the Energy Community.

Another issue which needs a clarification refers to the law of European Union and the meaning of legal approximation. Legislation created within the framework of the European Union and the European Communities (formerly European Economic Community, European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community) has long been called „the European Communities Law”. However when we talk about law approximation, we primarily speak about the approximation with the legislation which was adopted under the framework of the Treaty establishing the European Community. Lately, especially after entry into force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993, which established the European Union, this legislation has been called „European Union Law” or at the more informal bureaucratic jargon „acquis of the European Union”. The issue does not have only a linguistic nature, because in the theoretical legal sense the difference was not consistently made between the European Community and the European Union in time preceding the Treaty of Lisbon. The Treaty on European Union from Maastricht indicates the existence of the European Union as an umbrella structure that rested on three pillars:

I. The first pillar contain the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (this document expired in 2002) and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (EUROATOM).

II. The second pillar was composed of the issues of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and

III. The third pillar refers to the Police and Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters, which, before the Amsterdam Treaty, was known as Justice and Home Affairs.

The legal acts adopted within the framework of the second and third pillars are based on the provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Union.

The Treaty of Lisbon, entered into force in 2009, amended but did not replace the two remaining founding treaties and changed the title of the European Community Treaty to the „Treaty on Functioning of the European Union” (TFEU). The Lisbon Treaty finally abolished the classical three pillar structure as well as the distinction between European Community law and European Union Law. Also TFUE confers the legal personality to the European Union.

The current relationship between the European Community and European Union is outlined in the Article 1, paragraph 3 of the TFEU and is defined as follows: „The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as „the Treaties”). Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value. The union shall replace and succeed the European Community”4.

Therefore, the current Legal system of the European Union consists from following elements. First of all, the law previously called the law of the European Community, based on the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community. Secondly, law of the European Atomic Energy Community, which is based on the Treaty establishing the European Atomic

4 Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.2007

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Energy Community and finally, the European Union law, which is based on the Treaty establishing the European Union. After the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, the term „law of the European Community” ceased to exist and the common term „EU law” is used.

In the European Union the concept of harmonization of law means the process of harmonization of the national legislation of the Member States with the EU law. The founding Treaties use different terms such as: harmonization, approximation, coordination, that are expressing different levels of integration processes that are achieved between the Member States.

Article 115 of the TFEU5 provides for approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States to the extent that such approximation is necessary to ensure the establishment and functioning of the Internal Market.

Harmonization of legislation concerning turnover taxes, excise duties and other forms of indirect taxation to the extent that such harmonization is necessary to ensure the establishment and functioning of the Internal Market is provided for in Article 113 of TFUE6. In some cases, EU law provides for harmonization and approximation, for example for legislation on social policy (Article 151 of TFEU7). In other cases, EU law requires the coordination of laws, by laws and administrative legislation (Article 50, letter (g) and Article 52, paragraph (2) of the TFEU8).

The term „convergence” is being used by the European Union when referring to the harmonization processes in countries within the scope of the European Neighborhood Policy. The meaning is thus formally different from the term „approximation”, which is applied to the processes which are undertaken by the Member States and the current EU candidate countries, accession countries and association countries9.

Also, in legal practice of different countries more different terms are used, such as: adaptation, reception, alignment etc10. In scientific law literature the terms adaptation and assuming are used11.

It shall be noted that in practice the term most commonly used in relation to countries which are not EU Member States is „harmonization”, even if in the texts of the association agreements or the cooperation agreements concluded by the European Community and its Member States with the third countries „approximation” is used12.

The meaning in which the term is being used by the EU institutions and officials of the third countries (EU association countries, candidate countries, accession countries or other countries, which establish closer cooperation with the European Union) is not always very consistent and generally shall be understood as follows:

1. Either in the narrow sense „harmonization” is the same as „legal approximation”

2. In the broadest sense „harmonization” means the transposition of provisions of EU law into the national legislation, implementation (application) of the provisions of such national legislation by the national competent public authorities and its enforcement by the courts and law enforcement in cases of their infringements.

5 Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.20076 Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.20077 Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.20078 Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.20079 Moldova – EU Convergence planning, Environmental collaboration for the Black Sea, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, Presentation at the Public Outreach Event, March 20, 200910 Iryna Kravchuk, Approximation of Ukrainian Law to EU Law. Basic Analysis, Comparative Law Center at the Ministry of Justice, p. 2-511 Cristina Daniela Morariu, Adaptation of the Romanian legislation to the Acquis Communatire, Universul Juridic, Bucharest, 2008.12 Here can be mentioned Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, on the one part, and the Republic of Albania, on the other part, 2009, Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States of the one part, and the Republic of Serbia, of the other part, 2008 and others

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However, irrespectively of the difference in the above-mentioned terminology (approximation, harmonization, convergence, alignment, adjustment etc.) in practice one of the clearest indicators of the progress of the country on its path to the EU integration process is the quantity of national legal acts, which have transposed the provisions of EU law, and the evidence of their effective implementation. Also, it should be noted that only the broadest interpretation described above provides for a satisfactory assessment of the progress of any country, including Republic of Moldova, in its integration into the European Union.

The three major formal (as opposed to economic or social) sources of European law are to be found in Lord Mackenzie Stuart’s statement:

1. The Constitutional Treaties of the Community (which are acts of the Member States);

2. The law making acts of the Political institutions of the European Union;3. The decisions of the Court of Justice of European Union (and the general

principles of law and fundamental rights recognized and developed by the Court)13.

It is generally accepted that EU law is divided into primary and secondary legislation. The primary law in the EU legal system has the highest rank, and all other legal norms are based on and subordinated to the norms of the primary rights. Primary sources of law are following:

1. The Treaties;2. The general principles of EU law.The Treaties provide for the organization, status and mutual relations of the main subjects

of EU law and define the areas of policy making, which belong solely to the European Union, its member States and as well the areas of their shared competence. These documents perform essentially the function of the highest acts of the European Union’s system, similar to a place that takes the Constitution of a state on a hierarchical scale of legal sources. The Treaties that make up the primary legislation include:

1. The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (Paris, 1951);

2. The Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (Rome, 1957); 3. The Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (Rome,

1957);4. The Merger Treaty (Brussels, 1965);5. The Acts of Accession of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark (1972);6. The Budgetary Treaties (1970, 1975);7. The Act of Accession of Greece (1979);8. The Acts of Accession of Spain and Portugal (1985);9. The Single European Act (Luxemburg, Hague, 1985);10. The Treaty on European Union (Maastricht, 1992);11. The Acts of Accession of Austria, Sweden and Finland (1994);12. The Treaty of Amsterdam (1997);13. The Treaty of Nice (2001);14. The Treaty of Accession of 10 new Member States (2003);15. The Treaty of Accession of Romania and Bulgaria (2005);16. The Treaty of Lisbon (2007).

The Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community and the Treaty on European Union are called founding Treaties.

13 John Tillotson, Nigel Foster, Text, cases and materials on European Union Law, Fourth edition, Cavendish Publishing Limited, London 2003, p. 67

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The second sources of EU primary law are the general principles. Principles can be established by case law of the Court of Justice of European Union or by founding Treaties. The most well known general principles of EU law are supremacy or primacy of EU law, proportionality, subsidiarity, principle of direct effect of EU law, liability of Member States, and direct applicability of EU law.

The secondary sources of EU law consist in legal acts adopted by competent institutions of the European Union and the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The legal acts adopted by EU institutions are:1. Regulations – are binding on, and directly applicable in all Member States14;2. Directives differ from regulations in two important ways. They do not have to

be addressed to all Member States and they are binding as to the end to be achieved while leaving some choice as to form and method open to the Member States.15

3. Decisions are binding on the person or entity to which it is addressed and they can be addressed to the Member States or individuals;

4. Recommendations and opinions are to have no binding force. The Recommendation is an instrument of indirect action aiming at preparation of legislation in member States, differing from the Directive only by absence of obligatory power. Opinions are issued by the EU institutions in their competence area16.

5. International agreements concluded by the European Union are binding upon the EU institutions and on its Member States.

Also, for EU law is characteristic so called „Soft law”. Soft law consists from rules of conduct that are laid down in instruments which have not been attributed legally binding force as such, but nevertheless may have certain (indirect) legal effects, and that are aimed at and may produce practical effects17. Here can be mentioned Green Papers, White Papers, Action Plans, Communications, Resolutions and others. The case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union is relevant for the process of legal approximation too. The Court of Justice was established in 1952 and its main mission consists in making sure that the law is observed in the interpretation and application of the Treaties. In the framework of this mission the Court of Justice is responsible for reviewing the legality of the acts of the institutions of the European Union, ensuring that the member States comply with the obligations under the Treaties, as well as interpretation of the law of European Union at the request of the national courts and tribunals. In this context case law of the Court of Justice represents an important source of European law, because it complements and explains the Treaties provisions18.

The national mechanism of legal approximation is regulated by several basic legal acts adopted by Moldova that establish organizational procedures and legislative techniques:

1. Law no. 780-XV from 27.12.2001 on legislative acts19;2. Law no. 317 from 18.07.2003 on the normative acts of the Government and other

central and local public administration authorities20;3. Government Decision no. 190 from 21.02.2007 on establishing of the Centre for

Legal Approximation21;14 Paul Craig, Grainne De Burca, EU Law, Text, cases and materials, Fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.8315 Paul Craig, Grainne De Burca, EU Law, Text, cases and materials, Fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.8516 Methodology for Law Approximation in the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, 2010, p. 32 17 L. Senden, Modern Studies in European Law, Vol. 1, Soft Law in European Community Law, Hart Publishing, 2004, p. 11218 Octavian Manolache, Community Law, Fourth edition, All Beck, Bucharest, 2003, p. 4519 Official Journal No 36-38 from 14.03.200220 Official Journal No 208-210 from 03.10.200321 Official Journal No 29-31 from 02.03.2007

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4. Government Decision no. 1345 from 24.11.2006 on approximation (harmonization) of legislation of the Republic of Moldova with the Community Acquis22.

The first two legislative acts are governing the process of developing of a new normative act, and contain rules on legislative technique and procedural rules.The main legislative act that is regulating the national mechanism of legal approximation is the Government Decision no. 1345 from 24.11.2006 on approximation (harmonization) of legislation of the Republic of Moldova with the Community Acquis.

According to the normative definition provided by the Decision mentioned above, the harmonization of national legislation with Community law is a continuous process with the aim to ensure full compatibility of national legal provisions with those of the Community by amending, addition or drafting of national normative acts harmonized with EU requirements and then these legal norms become part of national law. This definition reflects largely technical and legal aspect of the concept of harmonization in the context of bilateral relations between Moldova and the European Union.

The key elements of the national mechanism of legal approximation provided by Government Decision No. 1345/2006 are:

1. It sets out extensive definitions of EU law and law approximation.2. It addresses the law approximation techniques to be used by legal drafters of the line

ministries and central administration authorities, which have the right of drafting the draft legal acts in the Republic of Moldova;

3. It establishes procedures for the preparation of the national legal acts drafts;4. It sets the requirements for the content of the national legal acts drafts;5. It provides the procedure of the coordination between national authorities of the

national drafts, which transpose the provisions of EU law;6. It establishes the national institutional framework for the law harmonization

procedures;7. It provides the form of the table of concordance and the guidelines for the filling in of

these tables by the legal drafters.The process of legal approximation can be divided into five essential stages or phases:

I. The preparatory stage. The first step of the process consists in establishment of the necessary institutions for the law approximation process and a series of technical activities including distribution and presentation of the EU legal acts in particular areas and presentation of the law approximation principles. Article 1 of the Government Decision No. 1345/2006 defines its objectives and regulates the meaning of norms related to legislation of the European Union. It sets the normative acts related to the legislation of the European Union to which the national legislation should be harmonized, the method of legislative approximation and the institutional mechanism for legal approximation.

II. The analytical stage. This stage requires definition of the priorities based on state priorities as well as international agreements or political documents, like EU-Moldova Action Plan mutually agreed translation of the necessary EU legal acts into the state language of the Republic of Moldova and their incorporation into the national Plan for Legal Approximation in line with the previously defined priorities. Article 5 of the Government Decision No. 1345/2006 defines the importance and obligation of determining priorities in the approximation process, especially in the areas set as priority by bilateral agreements in force regulating the relations between Republic of Moldova and the

22 Official Journal No 189-192 from 15.12.2006

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European Union. Article 9 of the Government Decision No. 1345/2006 regulates the stages of the implementation in the legal approximation process, such as identification of areas, establishing the procedure, identification of the legal EU legislation basis, establishing the provisions of national legislation in the corresponding area.

III. Transposition. This stage concerns operational elaboration of the new legislation in line with the previously defined plan. Article 6 of the Government Decision No. 1345/2006 defines the development of the process of approximation through the development of a comparative analysis and the elimination of contradictory provisions, elaboration of new norms or the amending of the existing ones maintaining the structure and language of editing, as well as specific and characteristic features of the national system of law.

IV. Implementation. Approximation means not only adoption of the new legal acts harmonized with EU legal acts, but also their implementation in practice and management of their effectiveness through the existing institutional infrastructure.

V. Credible Enforcement. After adoption and entry into force of the harmonized legal acts the necessary measures of the competent authorities are needed, such as monitoring, inspection controls, penalties and other corrective measures in order to ensure that the law is being complied with fully and properly and that performance of sectoral policy is improved.

The most important instrument of national legal approximation is Table of concordance, which represents a document, developed by a legal drafter, which provides information about the degree of compatibility of a draft normative act with the requirements of relevant EU legal acts. Table of concordance is mandatory for each national legal act with EU relevance. Also, it can be highlighted the double importance of the Table of concordance in the national mechanism of legal approximation: on the one hand it is the only national instrument for legal approximation and on the other hand, it represents a monitoring instruments of the European Commission of the legal commitments assumed by the Republic of Moldova in the context of the future Association Agreement and the DCFTA.

The national institutional framework of the legal approximation process can be structured as follows:

The first level - The line ministries and other central public authorities with right of initiating legal acts (draft and promote the legal acts with EU relevance);

The second level - Other interested authorities (examine and give opinion on the draft legal acts);

The third level - Centre of Legal Approximation (makes the compatibility expertise of the national drafts with the EU legislation, issuing the Statement of compatibility);

The fourth level - Ministry of Justice (makes the legal expertise of the national drafts);The fifth level - The Parliament/Government of the Republic of Moldova

(adopts/approves the legal drafts with EU relevance).Last but not least, it must be pointed the main deficiencies of the national legal

approximation mechanism which concerns the following aspects:1. Inconsistent and unclear legal framework regarding the harmonization of legislation

(harmonization obligation, competence, approximation techniques etc). The national legal framework which is regulating the national legal approximation mechanism is unclear and it is absolutely necessary to adjust and amend it, especially in actual circumstances when our country advanced so much in relation with European Union. It should be noted that currently there is a package of legislative reform in this area, including an initiative for a new law on normative acts

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that will cover technical aspects of legislative drafting procedures, including those with EU relevance. There also exists a draft of a new legal act on national legal approximation process.

2. Lack of awareness by the national competent authorities regarding the role and importance of legal approximation process for the national legal framework, which is one of the major impediments in achieving of the progress towards European integration of the Republic of Moldova and requires additional efforts, including training activities in the country and abroad.

3. Ignoring and periodical infringement of the legal procedures of the national legal approximation mechanism is one of the most frequent errors committed by central governmental authorities responsible for harmonization of legislation. There are present some vicious practices of avoiding the compatibility expertise of the Centre for Legal Approximation which affects the entire harmonization process, with a risk to approve/adopt legal acts that are contrary to EU law.

4. There is no established a legal mechanism regarding the checking of compatibility of the legislative initiatives of the Parliament, and the minimum role that the Parliament plays in the process of legal approximation. A solution is proposed into the new legal package regarding the national legal approximation mechanism - the obligation to send all legislative initiatives of the Parliament to the Centre for Legal Approximation for compatibility assessment.

5. Incorrect elaboration of the Tables of concordance, their importance was pointed above.

6. Lack of specialized studies in European affairs in the higher education institutions of the Republic of Moldova, which requires additional efforts from the Moldovan authorities to hire young specialists with university degree obtained in the Member States of the European Union, which is very difficult to realize in the actual circumstances of low salaries, so that graduates prefer to stay abroad to find a good paid job.

In conclusion, in the context of all mentioned above, it is difficult to underestimate the importance and timeliness of the legal approximation process for Moldova when our country expressed unequivocal desire to join the big European family. However, achieving significant progress in harmonizing of national legislation with the EU acquis requires consolidated efforts from all actors involved in this complex process, especially regarding the need to improve knowledge regarding the EU law and policies, increase the responsibility of decision makers in the central public administration authorities in order to understand the importance of harmonization of legislation at the highest level, as well as more institutional measures.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Government Decision no. 190 from 21.02.2007 on establishing of the Centre for Legal Approximation, Official Journal No 29-31 from 02.03.2007;

2. Government Decision no. 1345 from 24.11.2006 on approximation (harmonization) of legislation of the Republic of Moldova with the Community Acquis, Official Journal No 189-192 from 15.12.2006;

3. Law no. 317 from 18.07.2003 on the normative acts of the Government and other central and local public administration authorities, Official Journal No 208-210 from 03.10.2003;

4. Law no. 780-XV from 27.12.2001 on legislative acts, Official Journal No 36-38 from 14.03.2002;

5. Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States and the Republic of Moldova, November 28, 1994, ratified by Decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova No 627-XIII from November 11, 1995, published in the „International Treaties”, special edition, 1999, Vol. 10;

6. Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Republic of Albania, of the other part, 2009;

7. Stabilization and Association Agreement between the European Communities and their Member States of the one part, and the Republic of Serbia, of the other part, 2008;

8. The Treaty of Lisbon, Official Journal of the European Union C 306 from 17.12.2007;

10. Moldova – EU Convergence planning, Environmental collaboration for the Black Sea, Georgia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine, Presentation at the Public Outreach Event, March 20, 2009;

11. Centre for Legal Approximation with the financial support of the EU TACIS Project „Support for the Implementation of the Agreements between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union”, Methodology for Law Approximation in the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, 2010;

12. Octavian Manolache, Community Law, Fourth edition, All Beck, Bucharest, 2003;13. Cristina Daniela Morariu, Adaptation of the Romanian legislation to the Acquis

Communatire, Universul Juridic, Bucharest, 2008;

14. John Tillotson, Nigel Foster, Text, cases and materials on European Union Law, Fourth edition, Cavendish Publishing Limited, London 2003;

15. Paul Craig, Grainne De Burca, EU Law, Text, cases and materials, Fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 2008;

16. L. Senden, Modern Studies in European Law, Vol. 1, Soft Law in European Community Law, Hart Publishing, 2004;

17. Iryna Kravchuk, Approximation of Ukrainian Law to EU Law. Basic Analysis, Comparative Law Center at the Ministry of Justice.

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