MEP Siegfried Muresan said he wants the Republic of Moldova to receive more funds in the immediate future, but the money should be for the people, not for politicians. “My message is clear: more money, but also more conditions as this helps the people; less maneuvering space for the politicians who only promise, but do not implement,” the official stated in an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN.
Siegfried Muresan said the Republic of Moldova benefitted from the largest EU financial assistance per capita among the EU’s eastern neighbors. The benefits of coming closer to the EU are greater for the people. They are concrete, while the Association Agreement with the EU offers the possibility of providing even greater support.
“Now the European Court of Auditors compiled a report where it says that the EU funds could have been used better in Moldova. Let’s look only at the three priority sectors on which the EU assistance focuses, namely the public administration reform, agriculture and the police and border police reform. In these areas where the people justly seek progress, as far as I see, they could have been done more and the reformation and modernization process could have been more ambitious,” said Siegfried Muresan.
The MEP also said a lot of money was allocated, €780 million, and, knowing that the EU plans to continue to allocate a lot of money to Moldova, the funds during these seven years, between 2014 and 2020, could total again €746 million. “As the amounts are large, we must make sure that this money is used appropriately, that the reforms expected by the people are implemented and the Republic of Moldova looks better as a result of using the European money, not as earlier,” stated the MEP.
EU financial support to Moldova, aimed at strengthening the country’s public administration, has had only a limited effect, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors. The report says the European Commission could have been more stringent when assessing whether conditions had been fulfilled and the granting of additional incentive‐based funds was not fully justified. The Commission is recommended to strengthen the use of conditionality and performance indicators and to link additional incentive‐based funds more clearly to demonstrable progress.
