The largest part of the measures stipulated in the Action Plan for fulfilling the nine recommendations put forward by the European Commission (EC) in connection with Moldova’s intention to join the EU were implemented, the general implementation average being 4.24 points out of the maximum of 5 points, says the second alterative report presented by experts of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), the Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” and the Legal Resources Center from Moldova (CRJM) within the #ThinkTanks4EUMembership initiative, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Moldova.

In a news conference hosted by IPN, IPRE executive director Iulian Groza said that out of the 60 actions undertaken by the authorities by the Action Plan, related to the nine commitments, 24 actions (40%) were fully fulfilled, 25 actions (41.66%) were implemented with particular reservations, 10 actions (16.66%) are to be carried out, while one action (1.67%) was fulfilled with substantial reservations. The assessment exercise took into account the additional recommendations formulated by the EC in spring.

According to the report authors, 5 points were given to the public finance management reform (commitment No. 7), where all the actions were fulfilled. Commitment No. 2, which refers to the fulfillment of the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations concerning the electoral reform, was also fulfilled, being given 4 points of 5 in the first report. Other actions weren’t carried out and the European Commission in its intermediary assessment of May 2023 recognized this condition as fulfilled. Nevertheless, the fulfillment of the recommendations of the Venice Commission was addressed in the second report within commitment No.1 (justice sector reform).

Progress was ascertained in the field of human rights protection (commitment No. 9) with 4.75 points, being followed by the cooperation with civil society (commitment No. 8) with 4.6 points out of 5, where all the actions were fulfilled, but with insignificant drawbacks. The fight against organized crime (commitment No. 5) scored 4.35 points, with two actions being yet under implementation.

Progress was also made in the public administration reform (commitment No. 6) and the justice sector reform (commitment No. 1), both scoring 4 points out of 5, meaning most of the planned measures were implemented with insignificant reservations. By at least one key action is to be finalized in both of the areas. It goes to the full functionality of the SCM and SCP in the case of the justice sector reform and strengthening of the administrative capacity in the case of the public administration reform.

Also, the authorities are to take a number of actions to make headway in fulfilling commitments No. 3 and 4 – the fight against corruption and deoligarchization. At the end of June 2023, the progress in these fields was assessed at 3.77 and 3.7 points respectively. The priorities in these fields are to clearly delimit the duties between the anticorruption authorities and to strengthen the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office as regards the investigation of grand corruption and to implement the deoligarchization plan of measures.

The first Alternative Report and the Monitoring Table #MoldovaEUCandidateCheck were published on April 13, 2023 and included the results of the initial assessment for July 1, 2022 – March 31, 2023. In the previous report, the general implementation average for the nine commitments was 3.8 points out of 5.

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