The village of Stauceni initiates the procedure for organizing a local referendum to confer the status of city to the locality. An order to this effect was issued by mayor Alexandru Vornicu, IPN reports.

In a video, the mayor says that the status of city for a locality, particularly for Stauceni, will bring many benefits. In the context of the start of negotiations on Moldova’s accession to the European Union, the European pre-accession funds will become available this year already and the opportunities for cities will be much greater than for rural localities. The status of city will widen the possibilities of twinning with large cities. Bilateral relations of this kind offer even greater opportunities for accessing European funds.

Beyond European funds, the status of city will give an impetus to community development in all areas. Also, Stauceni will become more attractive to businesses, which means investments and, respectively, jobs, and also will have greater decision-making power in creating local transport routes, according to the mayor.

“Dear residents, I’m sure that many of you have more than once thought about the fact that Stauceni is, in fact, a real city. Even if it still has the status of village administratively, many already consider it a town. Stauceni has long fulfilled all the criteria to become a city and is already nationally recognized as a highly developed city. Given this recognition, I propose to consider the possibility of officially obtaining the status of city,” stated Alexandru Vornicu.

Stauceni is a commune in the municipality of Chisinau. It consists of Stauceni village, which is the residence village, and Goianul Nou village, with a total population of over 8,600 inhabitants.