Vladimir Voronin went to Brussels to concretise programme of cooperation with European institutions

I did not come to Brussels to carry out talks over Moldova’s prospect of joining the European Union, but to concretize our programme of continuous cooperation with the European organisations with the aim of implementing the objective of building a Europe in Moldova with the assistance of the EU, President Vladimir Voronin told the EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner at a meeting on December 6. The European Neighbourhood Policy offers the Republic of Moldova opportunities to reform and modernize the country and to make progress in solving the Transnistrian dispute, Vladimir Voronin said quoted by the presidential press service. The head of state stated that as a result of the steps taken, the largest part of the viable Transnistrian economic entities work within the legal framework of Moldova. They are treated as equals and enjoy the same advantages as the Moldovan economic operators. The head of state said that after the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP+) began to apply, the exports from Transnistria to the EU member states rose by 50%. According to the presidential press service, Benita Ferrero-Waldner welcomed the initiatives aimed at building confidence between Chisinau and Tiraspol launched by the Moldovan President, saying that they create a favourable framework for identifying a durable political solution to the Transnistrian dispute. The EU supports a Moldova sticking to the principles of a state of law, democracy, sovereignty and territorial integration. In such conditions, the European institutions will continue to cooperate with Moldova in the future, Benita Ferrero-Waldner said. The European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering told Vladimir Voronin at a meeting that the European Parliament is in favour of the gradual development of the relations between Moldova and the European Union, especially as regards the achievement of the objective of European integration, the solving of the Transnistrian dispute, the support for the internal reform process. He praised the Moldovan authorities for the actions aimed at European modernization taken under the EU-Moldova Action Plan. The European official also said that if the EU decides to support these actions, the reform processes could be accelerated. At the meeting of Vladimir Voronin and the EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs, the latter underlined the importance of Moldova’s Energy Strategy until 2020, expressing the European Commission’s readiness to support the Moldovan authorities in implementing this strategic document. Andris Piebalgs said that technical debates will be initiated soon to assess Moldova’s possibilities and capacities of fulfilling the stipulations of the South East Europe Energy Community Treaty, stressing that the adoption of the Energy Strategy is a first step towards joining the given treaty. The EU Commissioner for Energy spoke about the existence of a positive trend in implementing the Nabucco Project. The Nabucco pipeline will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe. Andris Piebalgs said that recently the European Commission designated a coordinator of the project, who could visit Moldova to examine the possibility of including Moldova in the Nabucco Project. President Vladimir Voronin is paying an official visit to Brussels between December 5 and 6. The programme of the visit includes a number of meetings with officials of Belgium, European institutions and NATO.