Moldovan PM meets political directors of Visegrad Group

Chisinau, 21 March /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip today had a meeting with the political directors of the Foreign Ministries of the Visegrad Group countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), on a visit to Moldova, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.      

At the discussions, the prime minister appreciated the Visegrad Group’s support for Moldova’s European integration. Filip gave assurances that Moldova would take every effort to ensure progress in the implementation of the Association Agreement, which is the basic priority of the government and the country.   

“We will take all needed measures in order to manage to regain the citizens’ trust in the European values and in the European way at the end of the mandate. By learning the lessons of the past, we will do our utmost, so that Moldova’s European integration becomes irreversible,” Pavel Filip said.

In the context, the PM noted that an important element of the European agenda was the meeting of the Moldova – European Union Association Council, due in Brussels on 31 March 2017. The meeting is a good occasion to discuss the results achieved, the basic subjects still under settlement, as well as the plans for the near future.  

The prime minister also referred to the priority actions for 2017, among which: making progress in terms of improving the human rights; strengthening the banking sector; enhancing transparency in the energy sector; creating conditions for the full implementation of the Free Trade Agreement all over Moldova; consolidation of justice and fighting corruption.   

“As for the anticorruption and justice dimension, we have adopted a legislative framework of European model; now it is important that we ensure its implementation. The justice is moving: we already have arrested judges, bailiffs, civil servants from the National Bank of Moldova (BNM), customs employees. And we are confident that these actions of counteracting corruption will continue,” Pavel Filip said.      

Also, the prime minister touched upon the government’s reforms’ agenda for 2017-2018. Filip highlighted, in particular, the pension system reform and the local administration reform. “A competent and professional public administration plays a decisive role in the successful implementation of the reforms, may be unpopular, but absolutely necessary to change the citizens’ lives for the better,” the prime minister stressed.       

For their part, the representatives of the Visegrad Group praised the government’s progress made in stabilizing the economic situation and the financial and banking system and encouraged the authorities to press ahead with the reforms on Moldova’s modernization. In this respect, the officials noted that the Eastern Partnership Summit, due in Brussels in next November, offers a good occasion to point out the sectoral aspects of the further cooperation within the Eastern Partnership.      

The Visegrad Group is a cooperation organization, made up of four central European states: the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. On 15 February 1991 in the medieval fortress Visegrad from Hungary, President of Czechoslovakia Václav Havel, President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa and Prime Minister of Hungary József Antall signed a joint declaration, thereby ensuring mutual support for the political and economic integration into the European Union.