Moldova's Balti municipality to be assigned status of second-level territorial-administrative unit

Balti, 1 August /MOLDPRES/ - Balti municipality will be granted the status of second-level territorial-administrative unit, the same as the status of Chisinau municipality. Presently, Balti has the status of first-level territorial-administrative unit. The cabinet, which held an away meeting in Balti today, approved a draft law on the matter put forward by a group of MPs.

The government's deputy secretary-general, Roman Cazan, said that presently Balti municipality has the same status as villages, towns and cities, which is absolutely groundless, given the municipality's important role in Moldova's economy.

In the context, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said that the draft law comes to solve this discrepancy. He noted that the problem dates back to 2003, when Balti municipality was not included in the roster of second-level territorial-administrative units.

The draft legislative amendments stipulate that the Balti Municipal Council shall hold extraordinary meetings to solve pressing problems or whenever necessary at the initiative of the municipality's mayor or at a written request by one third of the local councillors. The document also says that a group of one third of councillors shall be entitled to convene meetings of the Balti Municipal Council if the mayor fails to convene it within 15 days after the convocation deadline, or if the mayor refuses or is unable to convene an extraordinary meeting of the council at the councillors' request. The Balti Municipal Council is also entitled to elect a chairperson of the meeting via open voting and with the votes of the majority of the councillors attending the meeting.

The legislative initiative was signed on 27 July 2012. On 26 July, 22 councillors of the Balti Municipal Council decided to hold a local referendum on the expansion of the status of autonomy of the municipality on 9 September.

While opening the meeting, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said he would meet both municipal councillors and heads of subdivisions of the Balti City Hall.