Moldova’s EU aspiration to be supported by France

Moldova is on the way toward the European Union and makes progresses in what concerns its European goals, and France supports it in these efforts, President of the French Senate Christian Poncelet told the Parliament and later reporters on Wednesday, April 25. The French official said that the role of his country is to assist the efforts of Moldovan authorities, so that Moldova becomes freer, especially in terms of freedom of expression, according to the European standards. According to the same source, the Action Plan Moldova-EU will allow to draw nearer the legislation of Moldova to the European standards and norms, as well as contributing to the development of an appropriate legal framework in order to encourage growth, social unity, poverty reduction and environment protection. Poncelet has also pleaded in favour of developing and strengthening Moldova-France relations. For his part, the Moldovan speaker of the Parliament, Marian Lupu said that Moldova regards this visit as an event which marks a new stage in the development of the bilateral political dialogue between the two countries. “Moldova regards France as a strategic partner toward Europeanization”, Lupu said. During the meeting, the two officials discussed the level of the present bilateral relations, especially the inter-parliamentary cooperation. The two officials discussed the idea of settling a new type of partnership between the Parliaments of Moldova and France within several important European projects, so that the assistance of the French Senate becomes more concrete, Lupu said. The visit of the French delegation is a response to the visit of the Moldovan parliamentary delegation to Paris that took place in October 2006.