“The steps that must be taken to open talks on the liberalization of the visa regime and creation of an expanded free trade zone between Moldova and the EU have been agreed,” Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman told a news conference held at the end of the tenth meeting of the Moldova-EU Cooperation Committee, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the deputy minister, during discussions with the European officials they took stock of the actions taken under the EU-Moldova Plan of Action. “There were emphasized a number of aspects in the development of the EU-Moldova relations in a number of areas, including the political dialogue and the reforms, the social-economic development, the commercial relations, the cooperation in the customs, transport, energy, telecommunications and environment sectors as well as the interhuman relations,” Natalia Gherman stressed. Gunnar Wiegand, the Head of the European Commission’s Division for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, said that though the parties made serious efforts to develop cooperation, a lot of time of wasted as a result of the April events. “In order to overcome the dramatic experiences of those weeks, we have recently started a democracy support program. The program will consist of such elements as support for reforms and media plurality and will be implemented by experts of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament,” Gunnar Wiegand said. According to the European official, the EU is ready to assist Moldova with its macroeconomic policy. “It will be a gesture of solidarity of the EU in this difficult period experienced by Moldova,” Wiegand said, adding that a feasibility study needed to create the free economic zone was finalized at the meeting of the Moldova-EU Cooperation Committee. He also said that Moldova is yet to take many steps to show that it is ready to finish these negotiations, but the conclusions of the feasibility study are encouraging.