The first round of official talks on the signing of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union will open on January 12, 2010, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Moldova Iurie Leanca announced. The date was agreed during a working visit to Chisinau of a delegation of the European Commission headed by Gunnar Wiegand, the head of the European Commission’s Division for Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Iurie Leanca said that Moldova’s major objectives were stated at the preliminary talks with Gunnar Wiegand. He reiterated the three objectives announced earlier by Prime Minister Vlad Filat. The Government of Moldova wants that the dialogue with the EU starts with security and political matters and continues during the next months with the formulation of an extended and comprehensive free trade agreement and the liberalization of the visa regime between Moldova and the EU. “These objectives are not for the immediate future, but we hope that they will be discussed at the meeting of the Moldova-EU Cooperation Council that might take place in December this year,” Leanca said. At the same news conference, Gunnar Wiegand said that the EU intends to develop the relations with Moldova by creating joint values and working together in the areas of justice, internal affairs and adjustment of Moldova’s legalization to the European principles. “This agreement is a very important, new international treaty under which Moldova must fulfill certain obligations in order to come closer to the EU,” the European official said. Asked how quickly the agreement could be signed, Leanca and Wiegand said that the negotiations are very serious and they cannot speak about fast results. Iurie Leanca also said that one more joint, informal meeting with the European partners will take place by the end of this year. The first discussions on the opening of the talks over the signing of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union were held last week by Premier Vlad Filat and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who paid a visit to Chisinau. Sweden holds the EU presidency this year.