Czech Republic to further back Moldova’s EU integration course

Chisinau, 30 March /MOLDPRES/-Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu held a meeting with his Czech counterpart, Jan Hamáček today. The officials discussed the consolidation of Moldovan-Czech bilateral ties, energy cooperation, enlargement of commercial ties, need to speed up the implementation of the association agreement and its agenda of reforms, ensuring Moldova’s political and economic stability and also the regional context, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.

The sides welcomed the excellent cooperation at all levels between both states and spoke out for enlarging the bilateral context, especially in the economic field. They were satisfied with the annual 75-million trade turnover, which has a growth potential. 

Candu praised the support of Czech authorities for Moldova’s EU integration, noting that Czech Republic was one of the first countries to back Moldova at all stages of its EU association process.

The Moldovan speaker also touched upon the parliament’s current priorities, synchronization of parliament and government agendas to fill in the gaps in the implementation of the association agreement and also deepen Moldovan-Czech collaboration, inclusively to enhance growth prospects of Czech investments to Moldova.

“We are an EU-associated country and committed to regain the trust of our citizens and foreign partners as soon as possible, by setting concrete deadlines and taking actions on the implementation of the association agreement and enforcement of reforms. We also count on the support of the International Monetary Fund. We aim to consolidate the financial-banking system, implement the justice reform, fight corruption, adopt legislation on the mass media independence and transparency, as well as to ensure a favorable climate for the growth of foreign investments to Moldova,” Candu said. The speaker also tackled the change in the Moldovan political system related to the election of the president by direct vote, which aligns it with the EU pattern.

Candu and Hamáček have also broached Czech Republic's availability to actively back Moldova in its tenure of chairman of the Visegrad Group (V4) and maintain it on the priority agenda of the group, due to meet in Prague in April 2016. The officials agreed to build a thorough inter parliamentary cooperation format, inclusively to train parliament officials in the EU integration field.

For his part, the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament urged Moldovan authorities to speed up the implementation of the association agreement and continue reforms. “Czech Republic will further back Moldova’s EU integration and implementation of reforms,” Hamáček said.

Candu invited his Czech counterpart to return to Moldova on an official visit in autumn 2016, in order to participate in the celebration of Moldova’s 25 years of independence.

(Editor A. Raileanu)