To resume the financial assistance intended for the Republic of Moldova, the European Union expects all the conditions that were presented earlier will be met. These conditions refer to the achieving of the European standards stipulated in the EU – Moldova Association Agreement, political association and economic integration, the EU Ambassador to Moldova Peter Michalko stated in an interview for IPN. According to him, the support provided by the European Union is massive, is the largest that Moldova receives from the foreign partners, but this is related to particular standards that should be achieved and this is the objective declared by both of the sides.
“With the meeting of these standards, the people in the Republic of Moldova should enjoy standards and the rule of law, but also economy and in time living standards like in the European Union. And this is a very attractive perspective. Surely, these two things – assistance and these objectives, standards, policies - are related and assistance is offered for achieving these standards. This is something unique even in the history of the foreign relations and partnership for development as the EU not only offered access to the own market, but also offered money and methodology showing how firms in Moldova can meet the standards that will welcomed on the EU market,” stated the ambassador.
According to hum, the same refers to the visa free regime where money was also provided for meeting the conditions stipulated in the visa liberalization action plan. “We will cooperate with any Government based on expectations and criteria that exist as part of the relations. We will expect the partners from the future Government to do their utmost to make progress in implementing the Association Agreement for the benefit of people of the Republic of Moldova and this should make people’s lives better and should also bring improvements in a number of sectors, from economy, justice that plays a major role. The justice sector reform should be in the focus of any government,” noted the official.
Peter Michalko noted there are also other sectors where important programs are implemented, like the European Climate Change Program, which should bring new resources to Moldova for the environment so as to cope with the challenges related to climate change. “These are very important, especially for the agriculture sector and the economy in general. There are many possibilities. The last project envisions the allocation of €9 million. Last week, there were opened two new credit lines, each to the value of €5 million, intended for the SMEs of Moldova. There are many plans and occasions. We want these to be implemented as they bring a chance for a better life for the Moldovans,” stated the Head of the EU Delegation.
As regards the assertions made by the leaders of the Bloc ACUM, who said that if they form a minority government, they will manage to unfreeze the EU financial assistance in several month, Peter Michalko said he cannot speak about what the participants in the domestic political process say. “You know very well that macro-financial assistance to the value of €100 million was announced and the conditions were very well specified. There are also the payments in budget support whose disbursement also depends on the fulfilment of these criteria and these payments total almost €50 million. Furthermore, there are annual programs to the value of €50 million,” stated the official.
The ambassador reiterated that to cooperate with any Government that will be formed in Moldova, the EU will expect these conditions to be met and the assistance could be then disbursed. “Regardless of the political process, the meeting of these expectations is what the EU asked and this is the EU’s biggest interest in the relations with Moldova. The political stability is one of the most important factors for any political process,” said the Head of the EU Delegation in Chisinau.
