On 29th of February, the opening event of EU funded project EU4REFORMS – DNA took place in Moldova, Chisinau being warmly hosted by the General Police inspectorate of the Republic of Moldova.
The opening of the event included the welcome speeches, followed by the presentations on the project and on the role of its implementing partner – Central Project Management Agency (CPVA), moving further – the third part was dedicated for the panel discussions on the current situation in the DNA examinations area, paying attention to the legal, technical issues and challenges that Moldovan police has to overcome.
The event was attended by the Project beneficiaries, partners, implementers, stakeholders – representatives from Moldova and the EU.
The event started with the welcome speech of the Project partner: Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova Mr. Adrian Efros welcomed the guests of the event by emphasizing the importance of the Project that will lead to Moldovan reform efforts in good governance to be advanced and, will help Moldovan police to fully operationalise the DNA laboratory in order to be fully able to respond the needs of Moldovan Police in the area of DNA examinations.
H.E. Ambassador Jānis Mažeiks, Head of European Union Delegation in Moldova highlighted the EU will continue to support Moldova in its way towards modernization and spread the message that we all will jointly continue working in a team Europe spirit. H.E. Tadas Valionis, Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Moldova contributed by expressing his support to Moldova, which (along with Ukraine) is seeking for EU membership and by expressing the pride that namely Lithuanian colleagues will help to achieve the project goals.
Director of implementing Partner – Head of the General Police Inspectorate of the Republic of Moldova Mr Viorel Cernauteanu communicated strong messages during his welcoming speech on the importance of the project and the spirit of good cooperation, he emphasized action in its relation to the programme dedicated to the combating the fraud. Mr Saulius Gagas, Head of the Forensic science service of the Police Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuanian highlighted the Lithuanian team readiness to share the knowledge and know-how on DNA examinations, he also gave a historical overview on the path which Lithuania had to overcome during the past few decades in achieving and supporting high standards of the forensic DNA expertise.
Project implementing partner – Central Project Management Agency – was represented by Ms Rūta Grigaliūnienė, Head of International Development Cooperation Projects Division, who highlighted the key priorities for the action, she also ensured that CPVA will facilitate knowledge sharing, networking, partnership and will try to find the optimal solutions to support the law enforcement and security reforms in Moldova.
Mr. Tomas Butrimas, Key expert of the project in Moldova presented a comprehensive reference to the Project implementation in Moldova, focusing on the Project background and the status of implementation and also referring to what still have to be done, i.e., ensuring the good conditions of the laboratory premises, creating and strengthening the administrative capacity building, installing the CODIS software, insurance the uninterrupted financial support to the Forensic DNA laboratory from the Moldovan state budget after the project‘s implementation period.
The discussions involved Colleagues from Technical-Legal and Judicial Expertise Center of General Police inspectorate (Mr. Nicolae Bodrug), guests from the Ministry of Justice (Ms Olga Cataraga) and Key expert (Mr Tomas Butrimas). Some issues of significant importance were specified during the discussion session: obtaining the status of judicial expert and the need of some provisions of the legal acts to be essentially changed; need to have a CODIS system until the end of the project (discussions have been initiated with the U.S. Embassy regarding the transmission of the CODIS after the accreditation procedures for the DNA Laboratory are completed); necessity of the database server and others.
In closing part of the event, on behalf of the EU delegation to the Republic of Moldova Ms Sophie Dagand, Programme manager for Security and Migration wished the project team success on the awaited journey and once more reminded EU readiness to support the action. The event ended with other contributions and wishes to work as a one single European team bearing in mind, that the project results and the modernization will significantly contribute to the detection and prevention of serious crimes, reducing the level of crime in Moldova and in the EU.
About the project „EU4REFORMS – DNA“
As the political development in the past years as well as experience in the implementation of EU technical assistance program in supporting the law enforcement and security reforms showed, the political and institutional support are both needed for the profound and often difficult reforms ahead.
The establishment of the DNA laboratory is a long awaited, big and important step in Moldovan efforts to decrease the number of genuine cases lost in the judicial system as DNA is a powerful investigative tool.
The establishment of the DNA Lab within the Technical-Legal and Judicial Expertise Center of the General Police Inspectorate of the Republic of Moldova it is a crucial decision.
The key priorities for the action are to share the knowledge and know how in the area of the DNA examinations, to help to build the administrative capacities on DNA and to provide with the necessary DNA laboratory equipment which would correspond to the actual needs of the Moldovan partners.
