New high-level meeting on visa arrangements with EU to take place in fall
- 24.06.2011 16:18
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A third meeting as part of the visa regime liberalization dialogue with the EU will take place this fall. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Vlad Filat on his recent return from Brussels, Info-Prim Neo reports.
The Prime Minister said he was glad to hear the appreciations of European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom, who was impressed with the rate at which Moldova implemented the initial conditions of the negotiations for visa regime liberalization. According to Filat, Malmstrom saluted the first report on the progress of visa regime liberalization and said the document proved Moldova’s intense efforts in this regard.
Vlad Filat added that Moldova reached a new level of relationship with the EU in the commercial-economic sector as well. He referred to two recent decisions in Brussels of starting negotiations with Moldova on the the Common Aviation Area Agreement and on the Agreement of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade. The official also mentioned the EU's availability to intensify cooperation with Moldova in the customs, fiscal and antifraud sectors.
The European Commission has already sent a draft agreement on strategic cooperation in the customs sector to the Chisinau authorities. “We will examine the document. After its signing, a concrete plan of actions will be developed. The agreement could be signed by the end of the year. It will stipulate the technical equipment of these services and information exchange in this sector”, mentioned Vlad Filat.
He said that the EU was ready to assist Moldova in its preparation for negotiations regarding the Agreement of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade, especially in such domains like the internal market and services. “Negotiations won’t be easy, considering the complexity of this agreement. We need experience and we’ll receive this help”, Filat added.
Moldova began negotiations with the EU regarding the visa regime liberalization in 2010. According to European authorities’ recommendations, a plan of actions was developed. It focused on the adjustment of local legislation to the European standards. Most of the amendments to 39 laws have been voted. The EU insisted on providing citizens with biometric passports, improving the border infrastructure and security, fighting organized crime, ensuring the reform of the judiciary and of the Ministry of the Interior structures.
