Moldova hopes talks on Free Trade Agreement with EU will start in several months

Moldova hopes to start negotiations on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU until the end of this year, stated Economy Minister Valeriu Lazar at a news conference. Lazar said a positive signal in this respect is expected from the Eastern Partnership Summit that is to take place in Warsaw later this month. “We were encouraged to speed up implementation of the European Commission's recommendations in the period of time that we have left until the Summit starts on September 29. We stick to the implementation plan and on September 1 we presented a progress report on it. In the time that we have left, we need to convince our European partners that we learned not only how to draw checklists of commitments, but also how to adhere to them as we pledged”, said Lazar. He said that parliamentary debates need to be launched as soon as possible on a number of bills, such as the Competition Bill and the State Aid Bill, which require a great deal of political will and involvement from all governmental and nongovernmental institutions; this is why the legislature needs to put these bills on the front burner. Lazar added that the diplomatic missions working in Chisinau also need to be informed on what Moldova does effectively to initiate negotiations on the Agreement.