Moldova is the only country in the Latin are that is outside the European community. It has no other alternative than the integration into the EU, Prime Minister Vlad Filat said in a conference centering upon the economic and commercial relations between the EU and Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports. “I always said it when I had the occasion that Moldova is a European state and nobody managed to refute it. We are now in the process of negotiating the Association Agreement. The negotiation of 23 of the 25 chapters was completed during ten rounds,” said Vlad Filat. He also said that next September Moldova is to sign the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and to obtain a liberalized visa regime (earlier it was said that the regime will be liberalized by this yearend, e.n.). Vlad Filat informed that he asked the Transnistrian authorities to delegate representatives to the negotiations with the EU on the creation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area and will discuss this subject during the visit that he will pay to Rybnitsa in Transnistria on April 26. The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel said that the European market will not open automatically for Moldova, but gradually. He stressed that the current commercial relations between the EU and Moldova are very good and the economic indicators over the last few years improved significantly. “The continuation of reforms together with the negotiations will make sure that Moldova benefits from all the advantages offered by the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, while the opening of the European market for the Moldovan products will take place depending on the promoted reforms. The quicker the reforms are implemented, the sooner the people will benefit from this agreement,” he stated. The Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Wolfgang Behrendt said that the European Commission prepared a feasibility study on the impact of the liberalization of the EU market for Moldova. According to the data presented by Deputy Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac, trade between Moldova and the EU rose from about 15% of the total in the 1990s, 25% in 2004 to almost 50% at present.