The more profound cooperation between Moldova and the European Union is beneficial for people and trade. Moldova is an EaP country that benefits the most from the opportunities offered by the EU, such as visa-free travel, the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Galbur and his Estonian counterpart Sven Mikser stated in a news conference in Chisinau after a bilateral meeting, IPN reports
Andrei Galbur said the message transmitted by the Estonian side make Moldova be confident of achieving the set objectives. In the discussions, they spoke about the progress made by the Republic of Moldova in implementing the Association Agreement, regional security and development of the Transnistrian conflict settlement talks in the 5+2 format. “Estonia is an active supporter of the European course of the Republic of Moldova,” stated the minister.
For his part, Sven Mikser said that Moldova is a priority country for development assistance for Estonia. The cooperation for development instrument managed by Estonia annually offers about €1 million for reforms to Moldova, while the largest projects are aimed at improving the quality of services in the health system and digitization of documents of courts of law so that the people can easier find court judgments.
Sven Mikser noted that Moldova should remain focused on reforms, mainly in justice, the banking system and the mass media. The Association Agreement signed by Moldova with the EU is a very good bilateral cooperation framework. The EU invested a lot in Moldova and it is logical for it to expect results. The larger the number of reforms done by Moldova is, the bigger the support provided by the EU will be.
Estonia will take over the presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2017 so that the parliamentary agenda will be set by this state. The Estonian official enumerated such priorities as economic security, common digital market and neighborhood policies with emphasis on the Eastern Partnership. “It is important to have what to deliver at the Eastern Partnership Summit of November 2017,” stated Sven Mikser.
