The agreement on the technical and financial assistance program based on non-reimbursable financial assistance of €100 million provided by Romania to the Republic of Moldova was terminated. The Romanian side said that despite the repeated approaches by which there was reaffirmed the openness to sign and ratify the agreement in the form proposed by Romania as swiftly as possible so as to avoid the termination of the agreement signed in 2010, the Government of Moldova responded to Romania’s offer only on February 26, 2021, providing a draft text that is different from the Romanian side’s proposal for Protocol 6, IPN reports.
The non-reimbursable financial assistance provided by Romania was aimed at improving the life of all the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, in accordance with the objectives of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the Republic of Moldova for the European integration of the Republic of Moldova that was signed in Iasi in April 2010. During over ten years, the agreement enabled Romania to finance emblematic projects, such as the rehabilitation and modernization of over 1,000 kindergartens and schools in Moldova, or to contribute to developing the Iasi-Chisinau gas pipeline, which is a strategic project for the energy interconnection of Romania and the Republic of Moldova, the Embassy of Romania in Chisinau has said.
According to the Embassy, the signing of an additional protocol (Protocol 6) would have allowed to extend the period of validity of the agreement and to this way make use of the rest of the available funds for future projects and extend the areas in which non-reimbursable financial assistance can be offered. In the last bilateral discussions in the middle of March, the governmental representatives from Chisinau invoked also the fact that the acting Government of the Republic of Moldova does not have the powers needed to finish the procedures for signing the agreement. Romania is yet ready to sign a new agreement that would fulfill the functions of the agreement of 2010 and that would integrate all the subsequent additional protocols with the aim to stimulating the development of the Republic of Moldova.
President Maia Sandu came with a reaction saying that in times of a profound crisis, the Republic of Moldova failed to obtain important financial support – over €60 million that remained unused because the Government refused to sign the sixth Additional Protocol that was needed to extend the agreement. This €60 million could have been used to improve people’s lives by common projects to rehabilitate and modernize over 1,000 schools and kindergartens or by infrastructure projects.
“First of all, the Chicu Government at the start of November 2020 refused to sign Protocol 6 that was proposed by the Romanian side for extending the period of validity of the agreement. Neither the current interim Government took sufficient measures to keep the agreement, invoking the lack of support in Parliament. We will plead for the resumption of the discussions with the Romanian side on a new assistance program in the hope that we will soon have a Parliament that would support this and other programs intended for the people,” said President Sandu.
The Party of Socialists also reacted, saying the suspension by Romania of the financial agreement of €100 million because Moldova has been unable for so many months to have a functional Government is only a first step towards a disaster. “For the same reason, money will not come from the IMF and from other parts. Maia Sandu fully isolated the country at the foreign level and at least the money that came earlier does not come now. We all see once again how the big “change” looks like. We call again on Maia Sandu and the PAS to stop the criminal political actions against the people and to urgently nominate the candidate for Prime Minister designated by the parliamentary majority so that we have a functional Government that would handle the crisis,” the party noted in a press release.
