IPN on April 18 published an OP-ED entitled “Moldova after three years of visa-free regime with EU and new European realities”, signed by politologist Dionis Cenusa, who analyzed Moldovan authorities’ accomplishments during three years of the abolition of the visa regime for Moldovan citizens. According to Dionis Cenusa, the higher the number of palpable results similar to the liberalization of visas the European integration offers, the more solid the people’s devotion to the European course of Moldova will be. The author notes that the process had only beneficial effects on Moldovans, but some tried to illegally cross the EU borders.
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In a press club meeting staged by the EU Delegation to Moldova on April 18, Deputy Minister of the Interior Dorin Purice said the police reform initiated last yearend will meet all the needs of a rule-of-law state and people’s expectations by 2020. At the same time, Dorin Purice is confident and optimistic that the police reform will also meet the expectations of the development partners that financially support the process. For implementing the reform, the European Union will allocate €57 million. The agreement on the financing of the budget support program for the police reform was signed by the Government of Moldova and the EU in December 2016. The EU funds will be disbursed depending on the results of the annual assessment of the implementation of the program.
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In a TV program, President Igor Dodon said he will request the European partners to press the ruling coalition into accepting the mixed-member electoral system, but could also resort to harsher actions, such as boycotting of elections and mass protests. “With the assistance of the foreign partners, we will exert pressure on the PDM so that this votes for the mixed electoral system,” he stated. Earlier, the Democratic Party (PDM) proposed replacing the current party-list proportional representation system with the uninominal voting system.
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The opportunities provided by EU transfrontier cooperation programs applying to Moldova, application conditions and new methods of establishing partnerships were presented in the fifth national conference “Transfrontier cooperation: benefits of common borders for 2014-2020” that was held in Chisinau on April 20. EU Ambassador to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola said the transfrontier cooperation projects and assistance offered in this field reflect the importance that the EU attaches to the sharing of opportunities with its neighbors.
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Germany will assist the Moldovan authorities in doing reforms in the fields of labor migration, labor legislation, fiscal policy for stimulating foreign investment and in implementing the industrialization program. In this regard, Minister of Economy Octavian Calmac had a discussion with representatives of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ). The German officials said the conditions of attracting investment to Moldova were improved following the implementation of the Economic Policy Advice to the Moldovan Government project for 2016-2017, while the business sector is more actively involved in the formulation of reform proposals.
The summary of news from the IPN series “European Integration” is produced with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany and can be further disseminated on condition that the source is indicated.
