The Parliament of Moldova and the European Parliament will extend thw cooperation within a program of action aimed at strengthening institutional capacities. For the first time, the Moldovan legislative body was chosen by the European Parliament for a broad cooperation program. The actions defined in the annual Program of Cooperation between the European Parliament and Moldova’s Parliament for 2015 were discussed by Speaker Andrian Candu and the European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Moldova, Lithuania MEP Petras Austrevicius, who is the coordinator of the given program, IPN reports.

The cooperation program envisions the provision of assistance to Moldova’s Parliament in adjusting the national legislation to the Community acquis, strengthening of the capacities of the parliamentary commissions, support for the local information offices of Parliament, staging of parliamentary seminars, organization of fact-finding visits to the European Parliament, provision of assistance in drafting the Procedural Regulations and of scholarships for functionaries within the scholarship program “Democracy”.

Andrian Candu asked for the European Parliament’s assistance in transmitting European institutions’ best practices of strengthening the Parliament’s capacities so as to hasten the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU. “We have the ambition to create a new parliamentary majority and to invest the new Government by the end of July so as to continue doing the reforms assumed before the development partners. I hope the new Government will launch a new stage in implementing the Association Agreement and the mechanism of cooperation between institutions,” stated the Speaker.

The European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Moldova Petras Austrevicius is paying a visit to Moldova on July 2-3, 2015. Today, July 3, the MEP will visit the Parliament’s local information office in Comrat.