Moldova, another eight countries to benefit from five million euros to modernise civil aviation

Chisinau, 13 July /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova and another eight countries of the Eastern Partnership and Central Asia will benefit from five million euros to transpose the European norms in the civil aviation sector.  

The European Commission launched a project to this end in Chisinau today. Besides Moldova, beneficiaries of the project are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

“The cooperation is aimed at enhancing the safety of flights by implementing all the EU norms. We are faced with a prospect of joint work, aimed also to develop the beneficiary countries economically. We are sure that you will achieve nice results, which will bring numerous benefits, first of all to citizens,” a European Commission representative, Vassilis Maragos, said.    

Attending the event, Prime Minister Pavel Filip said the reformation of the air transport represented a strategic trend for Moldova’s government. “By developing this sector, we are set to enhance the capacity of the passenger and goods transport, develop the national economy, tighten flights’ security, as well as improve the services provided to travelers. Therefore, I assure you that we will fulfill this mission with greatest responsibility,” Filip noted.  

For his part, Transport and Roads Infrastructure Minister Iurie Chirinciuc said the ministry he leads “will manage to consolidate the institutional capacities, in order to transpose the European norms, and the project launched today would be a true catalyst of the process. The finality of this document will be certainly felt by the citizens of Moldova through providing services of higher quality, rendered at lower prices.”

Director of the Moldovan Civil Aviation Authority, Radu Bezniuc, said the financial support offered would not be provided directly to the state, but “will be distributed for projects dealing with trainings, exchanging experience, in order to transpose the EU norms in the civil aviation sector. The money will be earmarked depending on the degree of advancement the aviation field has in each state. In our case, Moldova has an advantageous position, i.e. there are chances for us to become leaders in this project,” Bezniuc added.

The project will be enforced during four years.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor L. Alcaza)