When the Republic of Moldova becomes a full-fledged member of the European Union, we will be truly united inside the European Union. These are efforts made by the authorities in Chisinau and Bucharest and by the EU member states that support the Republic of Moldova’s approach. But the accession to the EU doesn’t depend only on the authorities’ effort and the citizens must also believe in this approach, President of the Senate of Romania Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă said on Saturday, while on a visit to Chisinau, IPN reports.
“In the next period, we must focus our attention on all the steps we need to take. We have offered everything that means technical support, expertise for this road to be as coherent and as fast as possible,” said the Romanian official, approving of the good dynamics for the integration process.
Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă noted that from the start of the accession process until becoming a member, Romania’s GDP increased threefold. “In this pre-accession period, we need to ensure all the details and specificity elements in order to be able to benefit from the pre-accession funds so that the Republic of Moldova, the citizens of the country, can really see the advantages of EU membership,” stated the official.
The President of the Romanian Senate reminded that in 2022, Romania made available a fund of €100 million that is intended for projects agreed at the level of the Government and local authorities of the Republic of Moldova. The mayors are very interested in continuing the financing program for the European Village in Moldova. “We discussed a project aimed at financing mayor’s offices in Romania, which would receive money for the twinning project with mayor’s offices of the Republic of Moldova so that there is a separate financing line for this project. There are also energy interconnection projects that are under development. At the moment, we are talking about at least two interconnection points. The most advanced is the one from Suceava to Balti. We are also discussing interconnection projects where European money is also used to build bridges. There are four bridges. Some of them will be rebuilt, while others will be built by us. There are projects to develop the gas network and water pipelines that will also be further developed and supported,” said Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă.
According to the Romanian official, the Republic of Moldova is a partner state of the North Atlantic Alliance and is part of a program of direct assistance on the relationship between the Ministers of Defense of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. There is also a NATO Liaison Office in Chisinau which, together with the authorities from the Ministry of Defense, identifies and develops programs that need to take shape in the current context. “We continue to offer support and discuss, in the most practical and concrete possible way, how we can increase the resilience capacity of the Republic of Moldova,” stressed Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă.
“We must give guarantees and the people must be sure that at the level of the authorities, at the level of the international community, measures are being taken to be able to ensure the safety of our citizens and the security of our countries.”
The President of the Romanian Senate Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă is paying a visit to Chisinau on March 1-2. The official is accompanied by MEPs Siegfried Muresan and Rares Bogdan and by the State Secretary of the Department for Relations with Moldova Adrian Dupu.
