New “Youth in Action” programme stimulates young Europeans to become involved in the community
The Commission welcomes the adoption by the European Parliament, during its plenary session of 25 October, of the new ‘Youth in Action’ programme, the latest generation of the Commission’s youth programme. It covers the period 2007 - 2013. With its budget of 885 million euros, the Youth in Action programme is simpler and more flexible than its predecessor. It will be accessible to young people aged between 15 and 28 (13-30 for some specific actions), and is also open to a wider selection of partner countries.
Mr Ján Figel’, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism[1] said, “I am glad that this new Youth programme begins as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Union, and I notice that it addresses the first generation of young people that has grown up after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This new programme aims at encouraging young people to work together to acquire new skills through non-formal education activities, for a common project, for the defence of cultures, for a future of prosperity, understanding and peace. It fosters the idea of belonging to the European Union, and promotes social cohesion and intercultural dialogue, both inside and outside Europe. Since young people represent 20% of Europe’s citizens, they are called to play a more active role; this programme gives them the opportunity to play an active, constructive role in the future of Europe.”

Social tensions and the threat of unemployment in an ever-changing, competitive world economy, disproportionately affect the young. For this reason, efforts are underway at Member State and EU levels to promote a more active involvement of young people in the society in which they live. The European Commission’s action programmes in the field of youth in particular add value through their ability to facilitate the implementation of multinational, Europe-wide initiatives for young Europeans.

The Youth in Action programme will give funding support to projects under five headings:

Youth for Europe: This action is geared to reinforcing the active civic participation of young people by supporting appropriate exchanges, mobility and initiatives for young people and their projects.
European Voluntary Service: This well-known action, which celebrates its tenth anniversary in December this year, continues in the new Youth in Action programme. It aims to develop young people’s solidarity, active engagement and mutual understanding. It can take the form of either individual or collective projects to enable young people to express their personal commitments but also to involve them in the EU’s solidarity actions.
Youth of the world: This fosters young people’s mutual understanding and active engagement through an open-minded approach to the world. It opens up the programme to projects with the neighbouring countries of the enlarged Europe.
Youth workers and support systems: This action helps youth organisations that are active at the European level to promote the development of -
exchange, training and information schemes for youth workers, and
projects to stimulate innovation and quality and partnerships with regional or local entities.
Support for policy cooperation in the field of youth: This promotes co-operation among decision-makers on youth policy, preparing the participation of young people in democratic life. It also develops representative structures for young people throughout Europe. Furthermore, this action gives assistance to encourage structured dialogue between young people and those responsible for youth policy, and helps co-operation with international organisations, thus promoting discussion and reflection on the European Union’s work for young people.
The legal basis for the Youth in Action programme provides for a flexibility clause so that the programme can be adapted to any new priorities that may emerge, ready to be adapted to changing demands. The content of the programme will not be fixed for its duration; rather the initiative remains “live”.

Society changes and evolves; consequently, the Youth in Action programme is now open to a wider range of young people, from adolescence to adulthood. The new programme is cohesive, and it is now accessible to third countries, encouraging maximum participation throughout Europe and beyond.
More information:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/newprog/index_en.html

Russia is interested in defrosting the negotiations on political settlement of the Transnistria problem and working out a special, reliably guaranteed status for Transnistria with the observance of the territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, reads the press advisory issued by the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the results of the meeting the Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin and First Deputy Secretary of the Russian Federation's Security Council Yury Zoubakov had here with Mark Tkachuk, the Home Policy Advisor to the Moldovan President, and with Moldovan Minister of Reintegration Vasile Sova.
The document said that the Russian Federation, acting as a co-mediator in the negotiation process and as a guarantor of its results, consistently abides by the opinion that there is no reasonable alternative to attaining an all-out conflict settlement and to achieving status accords through a direct contact of the equal-right sides to the conflict.

The Russian party reaffirmed its readiness to assist in every possible way to the Chisinau and Tiraspol representatives in their resumption of such work, including on the basis of available previous achievements and ideas.

The Russian foreign ministry presumes this would be a contribution to the joint efforts by the rest 2 co-mediators - Ukraine and the OSCE, and by observers - the European Union and the United States.

The spiritual tragedies occurred within the past weeks in Orthodox churches of Ungheni, Calarasi, Floresti, Orhei and other localities bring back into attention the complicated times for Orthodoxy in Moldova in the 50's.
The Orthodox churches have been already closed this way once: with battles, bodyguards, violence. In February 1959, the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued a decision to close all the churches and monasteries in Moldova. A special decision of the Council of Ministers followed, after which the grim Calvary of monks, priests and believers began. At the same time, dozens of CSS (Committee for State Security) agents, having taken up positions of monastery abbots, destroyed them from the inside.

The historian Ludmila Tihonov recently has published a book called "The Soviet State policy on confessions in the Moldovan SSR". The book contains information and figures about the number of public prayer places destroyed by the exponents of the Soviet power. According to this work, over 600 churches were closed at the end of 1963, 88 of which in Floresti district, 68 in Rezina, and 65 in Edinet. In this book, as well as in the book of Valeriu Pasat, former director of the Information and Security Service, the non-devotional relationship between clerics and CSS is revealed by archive documents that have become available for the public only now.

Here is the content of the "Classified" letter of 15 May 1961 addressed to comrade Gribanov O.M., Chief of the Department No. 2 of CSS of the USSR, on behalf of the Chairman of the Security Committee beside the Council of Ministers of MSSR, I. Savcenko.

"Special notification about the closing of Hirbovat Monastery"

"An important role in the planning of preparatory measures for closing Hirbovat Monastery was played by Secret Services and trustworthy persons with leading positions within the eparchy directorate, monasteries or nearby villages.

On our assignment, the Secret Services and the trustworthy persons from amongst monks and parishioners disseminated rumours about the closing of the monastery. This action has been supported by our agent "Scurtu", who is the monastery abbot. As a result, a group of monks was formed, which requested to divide the property of the monastery. Taking advantage of the created situation, agents "Nikitin", "Belii", "Scurtu" convinced 52 out of 94 monks to leave the monastery. Afterwards the agent "Florea", the abbot of the Chitcani Monastery, following our instructions, left for Hirbovat and organized transportation of other monks to Chitcani. Then the agent "Scurtu" made an official request to the Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to take under protection the property of the monastery. Agent "Kazantev", who occupied a leading position within the eparchy, actively contributed to the closing of the monastery. By his order, the persons who could have negatively influence the preparations of the monastery closing were evacuated from the monastery in the first place. On May 10, 1961, all the monks were evacuated, and the left belongings were transmitted into the possession of the state."

The Moldovan Metropoly is still under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchy, and the matter of de-CSS-ing the Moldovan Orthodox Church has never been discussed. At the same time, 40-year-old scenarios seem to recur.

The things that have kept happening since 1991 up to the present day raise question marks about the relationships between the Russian Secret Services and the Pro-Russian Church of Moldova. This is not the first time when Moscow Patriarchy takes decisions that are opposite to the wish of the parishioners from Moldovan religious communities and any attempt of people to protest is stifled by force.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, also ratified by Moldova, states that "Any person has the right to freedom of religion; this right includes the freedom to change his/her religion or belief, as well as the freedom to manifest his/her religion or belief, independently or in association with other people, in public and in private." This right seems to be frequently violated when a religious community decides to withdraw its membership from the structure of the Pro-Russian Church.

It is well known that public prayer places of the Bessarabian Metropoly seized by the Soviet Government after 1940 have never been re-ceded. At the same time, there are already some cases when religious communities of the Bessarabian Metropoly have been dispossessed of their prayer places even after 1991. For example, the well-known case of the Saint Nicolae Church of Chisinau seized by the Moldovan Metropoly after the decease of the parson Vasile.

There have been no opposite cases, because the relationship between the authorities of the Republic of Moldova and the Moscow Patriarchy seem to be very tight. Last spring, the President Voronin was officially visited by his Eminence Alexii II and awarded the latter the highest state decoration, "The Order of the Republic". The President Voronin has also received high decorations from Moscow. Now he is wearing on his chest the "Alexander Nevsky" order. Nevertheless, the President has not taken any measures to calm down the disturbances around the "Alexander Nevsky" church of Ungheni. Although, according to the legal standards, all confessions are equal before the law, the President Voronin has repeatedly expressed his unwillingness to recognize the Orthodoxy within the Bessarabian Metropoly, declaring during the very visit to Chisinau of the Russian Patriarch that "The Bessarabian Metropoly does not exist".

But besides the phobia of another Orthodox church, the communist leader seems to have another phobia of any Christian initiative not yet approved by Moscow. For, the scandal aroused by the appointment of the cleric Petru Musteata as the Bishop of Ungheni, Nisporeni, and Calarasi was caused by the fact that this decision had been taken by Moscow, regardless of the will of a few dozens of parsons and religious communities of Moldova.

Why the Western parishes of Moldova do not want Petru Musteata? Some say that he might have disregarded the Christian prescription of immaculacy of the body; others speak about corruption within the Orthodox elite of Chisinau and Moscow; the rest refer to the activity of secret agents loyal to Moscow within the religious communities on the Prut River. It is possible that all or none of the above scenarios are true. Only the secret archives can provide clear arguments, but these would be revealed only after a few decades.

From now on, the scenarios seem to be clear. Moscow has never accepted to lose in Moldova, neither on the battlefield of Transnistria, nor in the gas conflict, nor in the wine battle. All the more, Moscow will not cede the public prayer places besides the EC border, especially since it has the support of the owners of "Alexander Nevsky" church and order. The scenario may have another turn only if religious communities, tired of revolts, find forces to follow, besides the path of Redemption, the one of the European justice.

Business Consulting Institute (BCI) experts have recently finalized the "Study on Rural Poverty in the Republic of Moldova, 2005". According to the results of the research, in 2005, rural poverty increased by about 4.8 per cent in comparison with the previous year, reaching 36%, which also determined, to a great extent, the rate growth at the national level. Besides the poverty rate growth, its depth and stringency increased as well.
Doubtful Quality of Economic and Social Policies

The GDP growth (7.1%) could not influence poverty reduction in rural areas to the desired extent, because the share of agriculture, which is the basic activity in rural areas, represents only 14 % of the GDP. On the other hand, the increase in gross value added of this sector by only 1.8% neither could be enough to ensure poverty reduction. Another reason is the fact that rural inhabitants, who receive income mostly from individual agricultural households, practise subsistence agriculture and participate less in trade exchanges. Therefore, the BCI experts conclude, the economic growth within the current economic structure cannot sufficiently influence poverty rate reduction in rural areas.

The increase in income inequality, with great probability, has led to the increase in consumption inequality, which, in its turn, will worsen poverty evaluation indicators. Thus, in 2005, a real consumption and income growth was registered, although not for poor, but mostly for reach people in rural areas.

Households that have income in particular from individual agricultural activity and social indemnities, including social and occupational groups of farmers and agricultural workers, as well as families with 3 or more children have contributed greatly to the increase in poverty rate. Thus, rural poverty can be associated with agricultural activity and dependence on social indemnities, conclude the authors of the study.

Within the examined period, the real average income per capita has increased in rural areas due to the increase in income from paid labour and social indemnities. At the same time, the poverty rate could grow due to the reduction of income from individual agricultural activity for households, where the share of income from this particular source is higher. The significant reduction of income from rented lots is also obvious, and it could have influenced the increase in the poverty rate as well.

The occupational rate in the urban area is higher (46.6%) in comparison with the rural one (44.5%). If in 1999 agriculture counted 50% of the total number of employments, than in 2005 this figure reduced to 40.7%. This structural modification is determined to a great extent by processes of labour force migration from rural areas and not by reallocation of odd labour force from agriculture to industry and services. All these factors have lead to pressures upon the state social insurance budget.

Village Inhabitants Eat, Treat Themselves and Study Worse

The consumption structure of poor people have not undergone significant changes, although, generally, there is a certain difference between consumption priorities, which poor people and the rest of the population can afford. The major differences in this regard have been registered in expenditures for education, public utilities, clothing and footwear. Poor people have insignificantly reduced alcohol consumption, while non-poor people have reduced their expenditures for clothing and footwear, and educational expenditures have significantly decreased in all the rural households.

Out of about 11.5 billion lei transferred from abroad, only about 139 million lei represent the income of rural households. Under these circumstances, one cannot claim with sufficient accuracy whether poor households benefit from these transfers, or they are poor including due to the fact that they do not benefit from them. On the basis of the available data, it can be deduced that these poor categories receive insignificant amounts from remittances. Taking into account the huge amount of remittances, it can be assumed that their importance in poverty rate reduction is considerable. At the same time, it can be assumed that at the present moment a number of persons do not have access to remittances. Correspondingly, even if the amount of the transferred money grows, it will not contribute directly to taking them out of poverty.

School enrolment rates for poor families from rural areas are considerably low and continue to decrease every year, except for preschool enrolment rate. It can be explained by the fact that households from rural areas and towns could not pay for clothing, food, school accessories and textbooks. Particular concerns are also raised by the fact that a constantly growing number of school-age children are left in the care of neighbours and relatives, because their parents have to work abroad. At the same time, children from rural areas enter the educational system with a certain delay and leave it earlier. Already at the age of 13, school enrolment rates of these children start to decrease in comparison with their peers from urban areas. This factor surely has a negative influence on the quality of knowledge and, as a consequence, on the capacity to obtain income and make a career according to the aspirations of each child.

Discriminated Children and Elderly People

In 2005, the average old-age pension in agriculture was 28% of the country average wage and 56% of the living wage for pensioners, having less value in comparison with pensions for other beneficiaries of the social insurance system. Of the total expenditures on pension payment within the insurance system, 50% is represented by expenditures on farmer pension payment, while their contributions constitute 5%.

While social insurance transfers form an important source of income for households, in particular for households with elderly people, other money transfers have had an insignificant impact on poverty reduction. The majority of indemnities are allocated on the basis of category principles and only some of them on the basis of income testing.

The current system of state social services is still poorly diversified. The institutionalization rate grew by 4% in 2005 in comparison with 2004, and by 12.9% in comparison with 2001. It is obviously necessary to develop community-based alternative services.

Rural population emphasizes to a lesser extent the importance of income and nutrition, considering their health condition of a greater importance. This situation is determined by the methods of obtaining income, which are conditioned to a great extent by the capability to work physically. The categorization of persons to the category of poor people usually takes place not on the basis of expenditure or income level, but rather on their capability to obtain income.

Therefore, poor people are perceived, first of all, as people who cannot or do not want to work, followed by families, whose consumption is disproportionately higher than their income, due to the family structure (e.g. families with many children). The lack of financial resources has contributed to the reduction of the number of addresses to doctors, in particular by poor households from rural areas. The number of addresses to emergency healthcare services is increasing. The number of families considered poor due to alcoholism and laziness is alarmingly high.

New Policies are Required

Business Consulting Institute experts consider that the poverty rate growth in rural areas can be explained by a number of causes. The most important ones include: reduction of income from individual agricultural activity, insignificant impact of government policies on creating workplaces in rural areas, uneven distribution of the national product, limited access of the population to goods and services, as well as the lack of certain viable mechanisms for supporting poor people. At the same time, there are methodological problems related to actual consumption evaluation and differences in regional prices, which prevent from accurately evaluating poverty in rural areas. Also, there is still a problem of categorizing individuals, whose consumption expenditures are under the absolute poverty line, but who have declared income that places them into the group of the richest people according to their income, as poor people.

Organizatia pentru Securitate si Cooperare in Europa Misiunea in Moldova
www.osce.org/moldova

PRESS RELEASE

OSCE Moldova Mission calls for fair and equal campaigning in Gagauz elections

CHISINAU, 27 October 2006 - The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova, Ambassador Louis O▓Neill called today on central and regional authorities to ensure fair and equal campaign conditions for the 3 December elections for the Bashkan (Governor) of the autonomous Gagauz region in southern Moldova.

⌠These elections are a test case not only for Gagauzia, but for Moldova as a whole,■ Ambassador O▓Neill said upon return from a fact-finding trip to the region.

In his meetings yesterday with the Chairman of the Gagauz Election Commission, Viktor Koloshin, incumbent Bashkan, Georgi Tabunshik, and his challengers Mihail Formuzal, Nikolai Dudoglo and Aleksandr Stoianoglo, Ambassador O▓Neill underlined the importance of fair and equal campaign conditions.

He also urged restraint from use of administrative resources and transparency at every stage for truly free and fair elections, adding: ⌠The 2005 parliamentary elections in Moldova fell short on some key commitments, particularly regarding equal access to the media and overall campaign conditions. In past elections in Gagauzia we have noted similar problems. It▓s unlikely that anyone will be satisfied with the outcome of this year▓s elections if we do not see a clear improvement in these areas.■

Ambassador O▓Neill emphasized the right to stand as a candidate as a fundamental principle of a genuinely democratic electoral process.

⌠We will in this regard attentively study the case of Valeriy Ianioglo, who has been denied registration after a large number of signatures in support of his candidacy were disqualified by the Election Commission,■ the Head of the OSCE Mission said.

Ianioglo is supported by the Patria-Rodina Party, which received 51.5% of the vote in the region during the 2005 parliamentary elections.

As in previous elections in the autonomous Gagauz region the OSCE Mission will carry out an assessment of the election process, closely following election preparations and visiting polling stations on election day.

http://www.osce.org/moldova/item_1_21872.html Claus Neukirch, Spokesperson/Press and Public Affairs Officer OSCE Mission to Moldova

str. Mitropolit Dosoftei 108

MD-2012 Chisinau

phone + 373-22-887813 (direct)

+373-22-223495 (switchboard)

fax + 373-22-223496

mobile + 373-69117024

email claus.neukirch@osce.org