European Parliament extends autonomous trade preferences and increases quotas for Moldova

The European Parliament on March 24 voted in favor of extending the autonomous trade preferences until 2015 and incensing the quotas on a number of Moldovan products that are exported to the EU, European Commissioner for Trade Karel de Gucht said in a meeting with Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who is in Brussels on a working visit, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting the Government's press service. The officials discussed the implementation by Moldova of the key recommendations planned for the first quarter of this year and a part of the additional recommendations from the plan of action for carrying out the European Commission recommendations as regards the creation of a deep and comprehensive free trade area with the EU. Vlad Filat said that Moldova submitted the first progress report to the European Commission on March 14. “We hope the European Commission will approve it so that the talks could start. We are waiting for the EU to mandate the European Commission to open these negotiations. We expect to agree a timebase on the initiation of the talks in the May 5 meeting of the Moldova-EU Cooperation Council,” said the Premier. The autonomous trade preferences for Moldova were extended from December 2012 until 2015. The larger quotas apply to wine, wheat, corn and barley. Also today, Vlad Filat had a meeting with the European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule. The Commissioner spoke about the reformation of the law enforcement bodies, saying the European Commission will support the steps that will be taken in this respect, including by providing €50 million in financial assistance. €10 million of this sum is to be allocated by the end of this year. The officials stressed the importance of the May 5 meeting, when the accomplishments will be assessed and the new priorities in the Moldova-EU relations will be agreed. The Premier said the Government of Moldova approved the national program on the implementation of the plan of action for liberalizing the visa regime and a report on the implementation of the first stage of the plan will be presented to the European Commission on May 5.