After the EU last week announced that the last tranche of €28 million in support of the justice sector reform will not be transferred to Moldova, the European Parliament now also considers freezing the €100 million in macro-financial assistance intended for Moldova, which was agreed in Strasbourg in July. The European People’s Party group is making effort to convince the other political groups to support a resolution to this effect, which could be put to the vote next week. Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev, one of the initiators of the document, spoke about this in an interview for Radio Free Europe, IPN reports.
“The European Union is based on values, democracy, freedom of opinion, correctness in ensuring equal chances for everyone. We care about these things and want them to be respected in the relations with our partners. That’s why we demand respect for these values in exchange for assistance to Moldova. The justice sector reform should respect the recommendations of the Venice Commission so as not to favor one party or another. This is the position we stated in the draft resolution that we hope to present in the European Parliament next week,” said the MEP.
Andrey Kovatchev noted he agrees with all the Venice Commission’s recommendations on the electoral reform. There are a number of things that cause concern, like the mechanism for establishing polling places within the uninominal voting system, which can significantly advantage a particular political player.
As regards the next week’s vote in the European Parliament, Andrey Kovatchev said he is not sure that a majority of votes would be garnered as there are differing opinions. “Some say we should continue to support the Moldovan budget so that reforms are continued as the money is ultimately intended for the Moldovan citizens. We do not yet believe in words. The Moldovan authorities can no longer do whatever they want and expect the EU to continue to pay. We see there is no political will to do political reforms, reforms in justice and we cannot continue to pay. We want to support Moldova, but a Moldova where there is correctness,” stated the MEP.
