Ex-deputy minister of foreign affairs and European integration Iulian Groza considers there is a big risk that Moldova will experience default if it does not regain the development partners’ trust. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, Iulian Groza said that even if the Government approved the report on the implementation of the Association Agreement, this wasn’t made public and, if particular results had been achieved, this would have been known, IPN reports.

“There are very clear conditions – adopting particular laws and doing particular institutional reforms. If these conditions are not met, the policy matrix conditions will also not be met and the receipt of the next tranche cannot be thus ensured. Therefore, in the first half of this year Moldova received no tranche of the direct budget support planned for this year, which is about €42 million,” said the former deputy minister.

As to the mission of the International Monetary Fund, Iulian Groza said that if this comes at the start of September, as the new Government promised, it will put forward very harsh conditions at the beginning of the talks. “There will surely be large budget cost cuts and unpopular decisions will be needed. The Government will have to assume responsibility if it really considers that Moldova should get back what it lost over the last few months,” he stated.

According to him, Moldova is a champion in terms of amendments made to laws, but the biggest problem is the implementation of these laws. If Moldova needs to show that it really does reforms, it must implement exactly the legislation adopted by Parliament. When the laws are implemented, particular results will appear.

Iulian Groza also said that if Moldova earlier had to meet particular conditions for receiving additional support from the development partners, now it also has to prove that it deals with the problems that generated the crisis and, in this respect, measures should be taken primarily in the banking sector.