Ana Gutu about her appointment as head of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media

Liberal-reformatory MP Ana Gutu said to Media Azi on Tuesday, 28 January, that her appointment as head of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was a surprise to her. She told us from Strasbourg that she had been called in January by the chairperson of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Anne Brasseur, who asked if she would agree to be the only candidate of the parliamentary group for the position of head of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.

“I told her that I have no political ambitions and that, since 2014 is the year of elections in Moldova, I am not sure if I would be a Member of Parliament next year. Anne Brasseur said that there still are four more sessions of the assembly and that I should try,” Ana Gutu said. She accepted being a candidate for ALDE, the third political group in PACE. As a smaller political formation, ALDE had the right to the chairmanship of a single committee, the one currently headed by Ana Gutu. She mentioned that her appointment was supported not only by the ALDE, but it was also coordinated at the highest level of the PACE, so as to have a consensus.

Speaking of her new duties, Ana Gutu explained for Media Azi that she would have to attend week-long PACE meetings four times per year, as well as the meetings of standing committees between plenary sessions and the meetings of her committee, which she would be facilitating. Ana Gutu will receive the “heritage” of her predecessors in terms of priorities of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media.

“It is a large committee, which has three subcommittees – on youth and sport, on education and on mass media – and it produces the most reports. It is an important committee in terms of these reports, which may cover the issues of technology, ethics of research, science, freedom of expression, education, minorities and intercultural dialogues, and so on,” Ana Gutu said. She mentioned that she received these duties with modesty and that she would be very thoroughly studying the activity of her committee.

For the first time a Moldovan MP, Ana Gutu from the Liberal Reformatory Party of Moldova, was elected on Monday, 27 January, as chairperson of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media, according to a press release of the party.

According to the agreement between European political groups, this year the Assembly presidency is held by the ALDE. Thus, Anne Brasseur (until recently president of the political group of democrats and liberals) has been elected as president of the PACE.

Ana Gutu was then proposed by the political group ALDE as a single candidate for the committee on culture and mass media. The ALDE, gathered in the large composition of 62 members, including substitutes, unanimously approved Ana Gutu for the position.

Ana Gutu (aged 52), Member of Parliament, was born in the village of Alexandru Ioan Cuza in the Cahul district. She graduated from the department of foreign languages of the Moldova State University, and received a PhD in Romance philology at the same institution. Since 1995 she has been working at the Free International University of Moldova, ULIM, where she is currently a senior lector and First Vice-Rector.

Source of photo: www.timpul.md