The legislature voted on Friday, 7 July, in first reading, by 55 votes, to denounce the Convention on the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS IPA), adopted on 26 May 1996, and an Agreement concluded on the CIS platform. In protest, the faction of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS) left the Parliament’s sitting room.

The proposal to denounce the Convention on the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly was made by the President of the Parliament, Igor Grosu, because Moldova “no longer resonates with the current policies, objectives and decisions of the CIS IPA and in the context of our country’s firm declaration to follow the European vector”.

At the same time, Moldova maintains interparliamentary relations with the CIS IPA member states at bilateral level, including through friendship groups.

In the political context of the region, since the beginning of this year, the Parliament’s leadership has not approved any participation in the AIP CIS events. Moldova was to pay a membership fee of 5.8 million lei this year.

Also at Friday’s sitting, the denunciation of the Agreement on interaction in the field of prevention and liquidation of the consequences of natural and man-made exceptional situations, signed in Minsk on 22 January 1993, with amendments made by the Protocol drawn up in Dushanbe on 30 October 2015, was voted in first reading.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the denunciation of the Agreement is due to its lack of applicability and timeliness, as well as its inconsistency with the present. At the same time, without having a signed agreement to this effect, Moldova has alternatives to grant or receive international assistance in material goods or rescue teams for the liquidation of the consequences of exceptional situations.

On the other hand, BCS faction chairman Vlad Batrîncea accused the majority of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) of a “superficial and simplistic” approach to the draft law denouncing the Convention on the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States and other CIS agreements.

The Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Igor Grosu, announced on Monday 15 May that Moldova would initiate the procedure for withdrawing from the Agreement on the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

According to Igor Grosu, the decision was taken after several discussions within the PAS faction and consultations with President Maia Sandu and government representatives, in the context that “being in the CIS did not protect Moldova from energy blackmail in the middle of winter, threats and official statements hostile to Moldova’s independence and sovereignty”.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was created on 8 December 1991 with the signing of the Agreement on the Establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States by the Presidents of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

On 21 December 1991 the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Turkmenistan, the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine signed the Alma-Ata Declaration on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

On 22 January 1993 the CIS Summit in Minsk adopted the Statute of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Republic of Moldova ratified the Agreement on the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States by Decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova No 40 of 8 April 1994 and the Statute of the Commonwealth of Independent States was ratified by Decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova No 76 of 26 April 1994.

Two of the nine countries that formed the CIS, Georgia and Ukraine, left the organisation in 2009 and 2018 respectively.