Potential visa regime liberalization by end of 2013

The second round of the visa regime liberalization could be concluded by the end of 2013. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Vlad Filat at a press conference on Friday, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Prime Minister, the implementation of the first stage could have been done 8 months ago, had it not been for the skepticism and populism in the lawmaking process. “I won’t name an exact date (of the visa regime liberalization) in order to avoid speculation, but I’ll tell you another exact date and our goals. It is the next Eastern Partnership Summit in November 2013. Before the summit, we must finalize negotiations regarding the Agreement of Association, the negotiation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and, of course, to proceed to the implementation of the second round of the visa regime liberalization”, declared Vlad Filat. The Prime Minister has returned from an official visit in Brussels and Luxembourg, between June 26 and 28, where he attended the reunion of the Moldova-EU Cooperation Council and the Conference of the Moldova-EU Partnership for Mobility on the topic “Cooperation with the EU in the field of migration”. During the PM’s meeting with the European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström in Brussels, it was revealed that Moldova was advanced by the European Commission to the second stage of the dialogue regarding the visa regime liberalization.