The European Union and the Council of Europe over the next two years will implement by five development projects in each of the Eastern Partnership countries. The projects that will be implemented in Moldova have a budget of €2.5 million. 90% of the money is provided by the EU, while 10% by the Council of Europe, which will implement these projects, IPN reports.

Jose-Luis Herrero, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Moldova, told a news conference that the first project will support the national efforts to prevent and fight discrimination. The second projects is designed to strengthen the efficiency of the judicial system, the third – to enforce the respect for human rights, the fourth – to reform the electoral legislation, while the fifth – to strengthen the institutional framework of activity of the local public authorities.

Aneil Singh, Head of the Operations Section of the EU Delegation to Moldova, stated that the provided money forms part of the EU’s financial assistance intended for Moldova, which amounts to 500 million already. It was decided that these projects will be implemented by the Council of Europe because this has the necessary experience and the projects are aimed at achieving results felt by the people.

Arkadi Sytine, Council of Europe Pragmatic Cooperation Framework coordinator, said that by these long-term commitments, the EU and the Council of Europe will make effort to obtain evident changes in these areas and will also create platforms to ensure experience exchange between the European institutions and the EaP countries.

Besides these specific projects, Moldova will also take part in 14 regional projects that cover a number of Eastern Partnership countries.