Moldova almost managed to meet the criteria of the Schengen Area in the process of fulfilling the EU requirements for obtaining a liberalized visa regime, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Vlad Filat said in the public debate “How much additional freedom can free movement in Europe bring to Moldovans and what can they do with it?”, organized by IPN Agency.
Vlad Filat stated that the most important lesson learned when making effort to obtain a visa-free regime with the EU is that ‘it’s possible’. “When you assume the government of a country, it’s important to have views. Those who do not see the further prospects of the country will not succeed. In 2009 we set a clear objective and this was important. In 2010, we opened the talks on the Association Agreement, with clear objectives, stages and rounds, and set a term for achieving the goals,” he said.
He also said that Moldova completed the procedures for negotiating the Association Agreement at the start of 2013. “We also opened discussions on obtaining a visa-free regime, being aware that this is a vital objective for our citizens. There are many Moldovans in the EU and the reunification of families is more important than the simple right to travel,” stated Vlad Filat.
According to the politician, the start wasn’t very encouraging because they spoke very optimistically about the Association Agreement, but the European partners spoke rather pessimistically about the free movement. “Even if the messages weren’t very optimistic, we took the plan of action and started to implement it. The European partners carried out multiple assessments. We are now very close to meeting the criteria for joining the Schengen Area,” said the Liberal-Democratic leader.
He also said that an element that played a decisive role in the communication with the European partners is the way the Moldovans are integrated into other states. “Italy was a kind of our advocate as the Italian authorities said there are about 300,000 Moldovans in Italy, who got integrated and cause no problems,” he noted.
Vlad Filat added that the Moldovan people are ready to benefit from free movement in the EU, but they must be informed about this right and the rules of stay that must be respected.
The public debate “How much additional freedom can free movement in Europe bring to Moldovans and what can they do with it?” is the 28th of the series “Development of political culture by public debates”. IPN has staged these debates for the third year with the support of Hanns Seidel Foundation and in cooperation with Radio Moldova.
