Moldovan, Romanian governments hold joint restricted-format meeting

Chisinau, 23 March /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip is on a working visit to Romania. The PM was met by his Romanian counterpart Sorin Grindeanu in Piatra Neamt. The two prime ministers had a face-to-face meeting, after which discussions on the bilateral partnership and possibilities of deepening the Moldovan-Romanian cooperation, including by the launch of new projects, continued at an enlarged meeting of the Moldovan and Romanian cabinets, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

In the beginning of the meeting, PM Pavel Filip thanked the Romanian authorities for hospitability and openness. He stressed that this meeting was a good occasion to discuss possibilities of advancement on the bilateral agenda and strengthen the friendship between the two states by joint projects. “We are grateful for the way Romania continued to help Moldova; this matters a lot for us. After more than one year of work of the Moldovan government, we can ascertain that we have managed, to a great extent, to stabilize and improve the situation in the country, in the political, social, economic and financial sectors. At the same time, we have already launched a string of reforms aimed at improving the people’s living standards,” Pavel Filip said.        

Also, the Moldovan PM appreciated Romania’s willingness to provide Moldova with a reimbursable financial assistance worth 150 million euros for a five-year period. The first two installments of this loan have been already transferred in August 2016 and, respectively, in February 2017. At the same time, Pavel Filip reiterated the importance of turning to good account the non-refundable financial assistance worth 100 million euros, provided to Moldova by Romania under an inter-governmental agreement on the implementation of a programme on technical and financial assistance. So far, 22.44 million euros of this assistance has been provided, and this year, about 15 million euros is planned to be turned to account, which will be earmarked including for the repair of kindergartens and purchasing of the 96 school mini-busses.  

For his part, the Romanian prime minister said that the relation between Romania and Moldova has been and would remain a special one. At the same time, Sorin Grindeanu appreciated the achievements of the Moldovan cabinet in 2016, highlighting the successful implementation of the Roadmap with priority reforms and approval of an Agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The Romanian official also emphasized that Romania’s experience can serve as a source of inspiration for Moldova’s European integration.   

“Romania speaks out for the continuation of the reforms. We will further back the reforms for the strengthening of state institutions, consolidation of democracy and rule of law state. The Romanian assistance will continue being determined by the pace and irreversibility of the structural reforms you have assumed,” Sorin Grindeanu said.   

The officials also discussed projects on energy interconnection between the two countries. In the context, Pavel Filip said the accomplishment of Moldova’s connection to the European energy market was very important for ensuring the country’s energy security. “I express gratitude for the assistance provided to construct the gas pipeline Iasi-Ungheni and reiterated the interest in the further development of this project, by prolonging the gas pipeline Iasi-Ungheni to Chisinau on the territory of Moldova and to Onesti in Romania. At the same time, it is important that we continue the project on connecting the Moldovan electric system to the Romanian and European one,” the Moldovan PM underlined.   

Also, the participants in the enlarged meeting of the two governments pointed out the achievements got and set priorities for the bilateral partnership in more sectors. Among them, there are: cooperation to diversify the transport and roads’ infrastructure, in the domestic affairs and migration field, environment, including the supply with drinking water of settlements from the two banks of the Prut river, cultural, humanitarian and military cooperation, as well as the collaboration to ease the flow of citizens and goods at the border checkpoints.