The European Union has put together an additional energy support package for the Republic of Moldova. It is pledging €200 million to help Moldova meet its gas supply needs. This will consist of €100 million in grants and €100 million in loans. The money should be available from January 2023. It will also provide an additional €50 million for budgetary support to Moldova. This will help provide support to those most vulnerable so that this is a targeted budgetary support, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced in a news conference held jointly with President Maia Sandu in Chisinau, IPN reports.
The European official said that her visit to Chisinau shows that the EU stands firmly by Moldova’s side. “Indeed, Russia continues to wage its brutal war against Ukraine, our neighbor, targeting essential infrastructure – electricity, heating, water – in despicable acts of cruelty, and creating chaos on global energy markets with its weaponizing of energy. This also threatens the Republic of Moldova. But please know that European solidarity with Moldova is unshakable,” stated Ursula von der Leyen.
According to her, the granting of the EU candidate status is a clear acknowledgement of Moldova’s decisive, pro-European and reform-oriented agenda. “This is all the more impressive when you consider the extremely challenging circumstances your country faces because of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Rest assured, we are accompanying you in this process.
“Now the Republic of Moldova is facing an acute energy crisis, related to both the supply of gas and electricity, and the affordability of gas and electricity. Rest assured, we are doing everything we can to help you face this crisis,” said the European official.
Maia Sandu said that the Republic of Moldova has condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine since the very first day and didn’t recognize the annexation by Russia of the Ukrainian territories. Even bigger efforts, unity and solidarity are needed at global level to force Russia leave Ukraine so as to establish peace. In the current energy crisis, the energy resources are used as weapons against democracy. Despite the made efforts, the situation remains difficult.
“The European solidity, including with the countries from the European Union’s neighborhood, is vital in the current times of crisis. Only together, solidary, we will be able to pass the coming winter and to keep the freedom and peaceful and democratic future,” noted Maia Sandu. According to the President, the EU has always supported the Republic of Moldova even in the most critical moments, offering assistance.
President Sandu also said that after the EU candidate status was granted, the moment when the accession negotiations start and when Chisinau becomes a European capital depends on us all. “We are determined to go towards this day so that we bring Moldova to the safe and prosperous space of the EU in which the human life and freedom are supreme values, in which peace, dialogue and respect are founding principles, while the states are not attacked on the development path they choose,” stated the official.
The meeting of the two officials took place amid a protest staged by the Shor Party not far from the Presidential Palace. In the square of the National Opera House “Maria Bieșu”, members and sympathizers of the party demanded that the government should resign and that snap elections should be held. Carrying placards, the protesters said the European official should not believe President Maia Sandu, who tells her that everything is fine in the country as Moldova actually became a dictatorial state in which the opposition is reduced to silence and the people have a hard life.
