The Speaker of the Riksdag (Parliament) of Sweden Urban Ahlin will make a visit to Moldova on October 8-10. He will have meetings with Head of Parliament Andrian Candu, President Nicolae Timofti and Prime Minister Pavel Filip, IPN reports, quoting the Parliament’s press service.

The reform agenda and the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU will be the main subjects for discussion in the meeting. Speaker Urban Ahlin will be accompanied by a parliamentary delegation that will consist of MPs who epresent different political groups in the Parliament of Sweden, namely Lena Emilsson, Maria Stockhaus, Adam Marttinen, and Josef Fransson.

On October 8, Andrian Candu and Urban Ahlin will give a joint news conference. The visit takes place in connection with the initiative of the Parliament of Moldova to strengthen the parliamentary dialogue with the European legislative bodies in the process of implementing the Association Agreement and of bringing Moldova closer to the EU.

Sweden is one of the main donors of Moldova, including for strengthening parliamentary democracy. A new program of technical assistance for the institutional development of Moldova’s Parliament, to the value of about US$4.5 million, will be implemented in 2016-2018. This is financed by the Government of Sweden and is implemented with the assistance of UNDP in Moldova. The objectives of the project are to offer assistance to Parliament in implementing the Association Agreement and the Association Agenda, to increase institutional transparency, etc.