Top priorities in EU-Moldova negotiations discussed at conference in Brussels

“Moldova's EU membership prospects is not a taboo subject in Brussels,” Graham Watson, Rapporteur on the EU-Moldova Association Agreement, said in a conference centering on the top priorities in the negotiations between the European Union and Moldova, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the organizers. The conference took place in Brussels on May 11. It was organized by the Romanian Center for European Policies, the Foreign Policy Association of Moldova and the Moldovan Mission to the EU. “We will discuss the subject if Moldova is prepared. There is no example of a European country willing to join the EU and prepared to do so that was refused,” Graham Watson said. The chief negotiator on behalf of the Moldovan Government Natalia Gherman, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, announced it was recently decided that Moldova will issue only biometric passports from January 1, 2011, as part of the attempts to obtain a road map for the liberalization of the visa regime. Victor Chirila, executive director of the Foreign Policy Association, described the reforms that Moldova undertook even without having a road map for visa liberalization. He said that Moldova follows the same path as Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, which had a road map. Granting a Visa Road Map to Moldova will be an enormous incentive for democratic reforms and the EU has to articulate a clear message that the visa liberalization dialogue will open the way to the Visa Road Map if Moldova implements the necessary preconditions, Chirila said. The conference was part of the project “Romania – Moldova Partnership for European Integration. The Contribution of the Civil Society”, which is jointly sponsored by Soros Foundation Romania and Soros Foundation Moldova.