The Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union is to be ratified by the Netherlands next week, the leader of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu said after a meeting with the Dutch delegation that is in Chisinau on a visit. The delegation is headed by Hans van Baalen, the leader of the VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy of the Netherlands) Group in the European Parliament and Vice President of the ALDE (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), IPN reports.

“All the EU member states must ratify the Association Agreement. The Dutch Parliament plans to do it next week. The Netherlands is a powerful voice in the EU and for us it is important that each member state should ratify the accord. Otherwise, it will have no legal force,” Mihai Ghimpu said in a joint news conference on March 28.

Hans van Baalen said for the Dutch Liberals it is important that Moldova be a powerful state able to ensure good living conditions for its people. The Liberals from the Netherlands support Moldova’s European course and insist that the country should make progress in doing reform and in fighting corruption as they want to see Moldova part of the EU.

So far the Association Agreement between Moldova and the EU has been ratified by 14 of the 28 EU member states.