TĂNASE v. MOLDOVA JUDGMENT 9 2. The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe 46. In a report dated 14 September 2007, entitled “Honouring of obligations and commitments by Moldova”, the Parliamentary Assembly’s Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (“the Monitoring Committee”) noted the following: “20. The Assembly appreciates the efforts made by the Moldovan authorities in order to assess the degree of implementation of the recommendations made by Council of Europe experts. However, all new draft legislation in areas relating to the commitments to the Council of Europe must be submitted to expertise and discussed with Council of Europe experts prior to adoption.” 47. In its subsequent report of 9 June 2008, entitled “The state of democracy in Europe: the functioning of democratic institutions in Europe and progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure”, the Monitoring Committee stated, inter alia, that: “80. In their 2007 report on the ‘Honouring of obligations and commitments by Moldova’ (Doc. 11374), the co-rapporteurs of the Committee on Moldova welcomed the changes made to the Electoral Code in 2005. In particular, the threshold for party lists was lowered to 4% for lists presented by individual political parties and 8% for coalitions of political parties ... ... 82. The Monitoring Committee was ... alarmed by the recent legislative developments with regard to the Electoral Code. In April 2008, the Moldovan Parliament amended the Electoral Code again to raise the threshold for party lists up to 6%. Moreover, the establishment of ‘electoral blocs’ – joint lists submitted by a coalition of political parties – was prohibited. These measures have raised concern and the Committee decided at short notice to hold an exchange of views with the Moldovan delegation on 15 April [2008]. The electoral legislation should not be changed every two or three years according to political imperatives. It should allow a wide spectrum of political forces to participate in the political process to help build genuinely pluralistic democratic institutions. The co-rapporteurs will closely examine the recent amendments as well as the reasons behind the recent legislative developments during the observation of the preparation of the forthcoming parliamentary election to be held in spring 2009.” 3. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 48. Concern was also expressed by the Parliamentary Assembly in its Resolution 1619 (2008) on the state of democracy in Europe, adopted on 25 June 2008: “5.3. ... [T]he Assembly ... regrets the recent decision of the Moldovan Parliament to raise this threshold for party lists to 6%.”