The authorities should take the measures needed to meet the conditions and general requirements for the second tranche of €30 million of the macro-financial assistance stipulated in the memorandum signed in 2017. As the authorities could fail to access the third tranche of €40 million under the same memorandum, which expires in July, the European Union is ready to continue to provide assistance, but the Government hasn’t filed an application for a new macro-financial assistance program for now. This and other issues were developed in a debate staged by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, IPN reports.
Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Peter Michalko said the memorandum signed in November 2017 contained also political preconditions that were set down in connection with the replacement of the electoral system, contrary to the recommendations of the Venice Commission, the OSCE etc. Besides other concerns, it was ascertained that the democratic standards in the Chisinau local elections of 2018 weren’t respected. A lot of time was wasted, but the first tranche was ultimately allotted last year. There is currently a definite list of expectations for the next tranches.
Peter Michalko noted that among the expectations are the investigation of the bank fraud, fighting of corruption, adoption of legal provisions concerning the imposition of penalties for money laundering, stopping of the citizenship by investment program, launching of the consultation process over the justice sector reform strategy, auditing of the Audiovisual Council and the Competition Council, etc. The period when the macro-financial assistance will be unblocked depends on the progress that will be made. An assessment will be carried out and the European Commission can later authorize the second tranche. This is achievable as part of the current memorandum that expires in July, if actions are taken swiftly.
As to the third tranche of €40 million, the EU ambassador said this was excluded from the budget due to the shortage of time. The memorandum expires in July, but the European support will continue. The EU will provide a new tranche of emergency macro-financial assistance of €100 million, but a new memorandum could yet exist. The Moldovan authorities haven’t yet filed an application to this effect.
Tatiana Ivanichkina, secretary of state at the Ministry of Finance, said that in discussions with representatives of the European Commission’s responsible division, it was noted that given the bureaucratic procedures, it would be easier to negotiate a new instrument of macro-financial assistance than to extend the exiting one. This way, they can ask for a new instrument of macro-financial assistance. However, so as not to disperse the efforts in the period, the authorities focus on the emergency macro-financial assistance.
The debate titled “EU assistance for alleviating the effects of COVID-19 on the Republic of Moldova” was organized by Institute for European Policies and Reforms with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
