The Republic of Moldova has to meet more conditions in order to benefit from a liberalized visa regime with the EU compared with other countries that were in a similar situation, said Hungarian expert Csaba Toro, who represented the EU at the roundtable meeting “Moldova – EU Dialogue on Liberalization of the Visa Regime: Second Phase”, which was organized by the Institute for Development and Social Initiative (IDIS) “Viitorul”, IPN reports.

Csaba Toro stated that the process through which Moldova is going is beneficial not only to the country and its people, but also to the EU member states, especially those that are skeptical about Moldova’s aspirations. After seeing Moldova’s progress, the skeptical states can become more open in the cooperation relations and can support the country when time comes to sign the Association Agreement with the EU.

According to Csaba Toro, the liberalization of the visa regime for Moldovans is a first step towards the subsequent steps that will lead to the integration into the EU. The fact that Moldova now faces severe conditions is beneficial as it will be much easier in the future. He said that some of the EU member states now encounter difficulties in joining the Schengen area because they weren’t obliged to meet all the conditions initially.

Speaking about the fact that Moldova must fulfill more conditions than other countries at this stage, the Hungarian expert said that by the conditions imposed on it, Moldova is pushed by the European Commission to implement the initiated reforms.

The expert also said that before granting a visa-free regime to Moldova, the EU wants to be sure that all the adopted laws are implemented. Csaba Toro stressed he was impressed by Moldova’s continuous effort to adopt laws and praised the country for starting to do reforms, which is a condition for switching to the second phase of the visa liberalization plan, without waiting for a incentive from the European Commission.