Moldovan parliament speaker meets Dutch foreign minister

Chisinau, 1 June /MOLDPRES/ - Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu today had a meeting with Albert Gerard Koenders, Foreign Affairs Minister of the Netherlands, the country holding the European Council’s Presidency in the first half of 2016, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.  Albert Gerard Koenders.

The main subjects tackled at the meeting were focused on the bilateral cooperation between the two countries, Moldova’s priorities of reform for the immediately next period, in the context of implementing the Association Agreement, cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

The parliament speaker thanked the Netherlands for the substantial technical and financial assistance provided to Moldova for economic development, reforming justice, strengthening the human rights field and the institutional capacities in diverse sectors. At the same time, the speaker highly appreciated the support of Dutch experts to consolidate the capacities of the National Bank of Moldova (BNM).  

Andrian Candu punctually referred to the most pressing actions due to be carried out by the authorities till the end of the parliament’s spring session, which deal with ensuring stability of the financial and banking sector, speeding up the justice reform and fighting corruption, consolidating the country’s energy security.

The parliament speaker gave assurances that the efforts of the parliament and government were focused on results, with the goal of development of Moldova and regaining the citizens’ trust.    

‘’Our country is now officially associated to the European Union. We have assumed a complex agenda of reforms, with concrete terms of implementation and we have the firm determination to work, along with the government, for the country’s development and recover the confidence of citizens,’’ Andrian Candu said, highlighting the importance of modernization and optimization of the work of the state’s institutions.

For his part, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Albert Gerard Koenders said the European Union keeps an eye with interest on the evolution of the reforms in Moldova and reiterated the EU’s support for their advancement. The official urged the Moldovan authorities to continue with the same determination to carry out the commitments taken, ensuring long-term transparency and consistence , given the difficulty of the reforms and the large volume of work due to be carried out to this end.

(Editor A. Raileanu)