Council reaffirms EU’s commitment to visa-free travel objective for Moldovans

The EU's Foreign Affairs Council shares the European Commission's analysis that Moldova has fulfilled all the benchmarks under the first phase of the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization, it stated in its Conclusions of November 19. Thus, it decided to launch the assessment of the benchmarks set out under the second phase, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The Council reaffirms the EU’s commitment to the shared objective of visa-free travel for the citizens of Moldova in due course provided that the conditions for well-managed and secure mobility as set out in the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization are in place”, the Conclusions read. Moldova started implementing the Action Plan in January 2011, and has since presented to the European Commission two progress reports, in September 2011 and in February 2012. Subsequently, the Commission published on June 22 its final report on the implementation of the Action Plan's first phase, which coincided with Moldova kicking off the implementation of the second phase. In August, the Commission also published a report on possible migratory and security impacts of Moldova's visa liberalization on the European Union. “The Council invites the Commission to continue supporting the Republic of Moldova in implementing the Action Plan on Visa Liberalization, as well as to continue reporting about the implementation thereof”, it said in its Conclusions of November 19. The Moldovan Government said in a press release that Moldova is fully committed to fulfilling the benchmarks of the Action Plan's second phase and intends to submit its first report to the European Commission in the course of December 2012.