After adhering to EU, Romania will continue its funding programs for Moldovan citizens - Mihai Gheorghiu

Romania will continue, with its succession to the European Union, to implement the strategy for supporting the Romanians from all over the world, and to keep the funding programs for the Moldovan citizens, although there will be a new policy in this regard, Mihai Gheorghiu, state secretary for relations of the Romanians from abroad, said in an interview exclusively given to the on-line Moldovan-Romanian newspaper edition (www.md-ro.org.) dated November 10. “We trust the European funding programs will be accessed in both by the partners from Romania and Moldova. Actually, there is an instrument of the EU Neighborhood Policy that stipulates the structural and sustainable development within the Euro regions and I think it should make a concerted effort so the local administration from there could involve people to deal with interesting projects, capable to attract funding from the European programs”, Romanian official stated. According to the cited source, support priorities as regards Moldovan people will remain the same if the creation of certain strong partnerships between the representatives of the civil societies from the two states, extension of the cooperation in education, culture and economy are ranging among the high priorities. According to Gheorghiu, in November 2006, the draft law on the support for the Romanians from abroad could reach the Romanian Parliament, and there it is possible that the law is voted before January 1 2007. Referring to the procedure for regaining the Romanian citizenship, after January 1 2007, Gheorghiu said that these conditions could remain the same, but the procedure will be more flexible, quicker. “Certain things not said by many Moldovan citizens come out now. I think it is a situation that is real, but it was not emphasized by the official statistics”, Mihai Gheorghiu said, asserting that “any citizen from Romania and Moldova has the right to wish itself a better life in its native country or abroad”. Since 1993 Romania has granted USD 114.6 mln to Moldova, while as of next year, the first year of Romania in the EU, the estimative value of the assistance for development planned for Moldova could amount to EUR 10 mln.