The Republic of Moldova banks on European assistance in the process of strengthening the energy sector by which the authorities aim to diversify the energy resources so as to ensure the country’s energy independence, President Maia Sandu stated in a meeting with the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell in Brussels, IPN reports.
President Sandu thanked the EU official for the assistance offered to Moldova in the course of this year, including for coping with the energy crisis. Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, in the name of the Government of the Republic of Moldova signed the documents confirming the conclusion of the agreements needed for implementing the Moldovan Energy Efficiency Project. Based on the signed documents, Moldova will receive a sovereign loan of €30 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will be co-financed by a €30 million loan from the European Investment Bank and an investment grant of €2.8 million from the EU’s Neighborhood Investment Platform and from the Eastern Partnership Technical Assistance Trust Fund. The money will be used to rehabilitate public institutions of national importance, such as republican hospitals, and local and municipal facilities, such as kindergartens, schools, municipal and district hospitals.
While in Brussels, Maia Sandu also met with the President of the European Council Charles Michel, thanking him for his personal involvement in the promotion of cooperation between the EU and the Eastern Partnership countries and the constant assistance offered to the Moldovan authorities in doing the reform agenda.
The two officials also discussed Moldova‘s plans and priorities for 2022, methods of more efficiently using the support provided by the EU and the new financing opportunities offered to the EaP countries. Representatives of the European Union and of the Republic of Moldova signed in Brushes a €60 million financing agreement. The budgetary support program supplements the EU’s economic recovery package for the Republic of Moldova to the value of €600 million, which is to be implemented during the next three years.
