On 18-19 September, the "Support to the Moldovan Bar Association" component of the PCF Project on Strengthening the efficiency of justice and support to lawyers’ profession in the Republic of Moldova organised a two day workshop on strategic planning for the Moldovan lawyers’ profession. The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of the Moldovan Bar Association to strategically plan its activities and thus contribute to improved self-governance in line with Council of Europe (CoE) recommendations and European best practices.
The workshop was opened by Mrs Nina Lozan, the president of the Moldovan Bar Association, thanking the Council of Europe and the European Union for the support provided to the Bar's initiative to prepare the Organisation’s strategy for the next period. By the decision of the Council of the Moldovan Bar Association, the organisation's strategy for the period following the expiry of its current 2012-2015 strategic document has to be prepared and approved by the end of the current year.
The workshop was conducted through a participatory approach with a combination of trainings, presentation of best practices of member States' Bar Associations and practical group work. The best European practices and lessons learned featured among others the quality of the legal services, professional ethics, the image of the profession, services/functions of the bar association, societal role in promoting the rule of law and human rights, institutional development, internal and external communication and the CoE Recommendation Rec (2000)21 on the Freedom of the profession of lawyer.
The workshop benefited from the active participation of the members of the Moldovan Bar Association's Council, members of the Ethics Committee, Audit Committee, Women Lawyers Association, Young Lawyers Association. With Council of Europe experts' support, the participants conducted an assessment of the implementation of the current Strategy, the status of the development of the organisation and its functions, relations with the justice stakeholders and debated the organisation's vision, objective and priorities for each areas of the Moldovan Bar Association's responsibility, along with mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of the strategy's implementation. In the words of one of the participants, “in my 30 year career I’ve been to many events, workshops, seminars, but it’s the first time I feel that after two days of work we actually accomplished something meaningful, together, as a team”.
As a result of the workshop, the Council of the Moldovan Bar Association will finalise the organisation's strategy for 2016-2020 and the action plan for 2016 and present it for further consultations and approval.
The component on the "Support to the Moldovan Bar Association" of the "Strengthening the efficiency of justice and support to lawyers' profession in the Republic of Moldova" project is funded by the Programmatic Cooperation Framework for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus. The Council of Europe and European Union are working in partnership with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Belarus to help them meet Council of Europe benchmarks in human rights, democracy and the rule of law and improve the lives of citizens.