Sixth round of talks on Association Agreement will take place in mid-April

The fifth round of the talks on the Association Agreement was successful even if rather short, with the European officials assuring us that they will support Moldova, Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman said in a news conference on Wednesday, February 23. The sixth round of talks will be held in the middle of April, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We continued the negotiations on the general principles and objectives of the agreement and returned to a number of provisions from this part of the agreement. We started to discuss the institutional, general and final provisions. We analyzed the situation in the legal system and agreed that the final text about the mobility of persons will be edited in parallel with the dialogue on the visa regime between Moldova and the EU,” said the deputy minister. Twenty of the 24 chapters that should be negotiated can be closed temporarily. They concern the reform of the public administration, cooperation in the areas of environment and transport and the taxation system, Natalia Gherman said, adding that significant progress was made in the talks on the visa regime after the official launch in June 2010. The next meeting centering on the visa regime will take place in Chisinau in June. The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schuebel said the fifth round was very efficient and productive. “It was a friendly meeting based of exchange of opinions on the general provisions. We agreed on the general objectives, the preamble, the general principles and the final and institutional clauses,” said Dirk Schuebel. The Ambassador also said that the talks are close to completion, but there should be opened the negotiations on the creation of the deep and comprehensive free trade area. “As regards the creation of the deep and comprehensive free trade area, the Commission asked opening the discussions to get the EU member states’ mandate for negotiations. If everything goes well, the negotiations will open by the summer vacation,” said Dirk Schuebel. The fifth round of talks took place in Brussels on February 17.