PM says Moldova set to make steps towards cohesion with EU next years

Chisinau, 14 May /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova has signed two agreements with the European Union and benefited from free visa regime in those ten years of Eastern Partnership and for the next years, we are set to make concrete steps from cooperation towards cohesion with EU. Prime Minister Pavel Filip today made statements to this effect at the high-level conference on the tenth anniversary of the Eastern Partnership’s launch, held in Brussels.   

According to the PM, the transformations taking place in the Eastern Partnership countries are obvious and these deserve, in the long run, a new visionary political decision of rapprochement with EU. The prime minister reviewed the  achievements from the ten years of partnership, specifying that, on this period, Moldova had learned more lessons. “The political will stayed at the basis of this project and in continuation, I believe that progress can be achieved having political will at the basis. Certainly, we still have much work to do. We must implement the commitments in the sector of good governance, ensuring democratic standards, legislative harmonization. Some fields, we should recognize, are reformed easier, the others are much more resistant. This is a complex work, which takes time; yet, it is important that we say you that we are absolutely determined,” Filip said.  

The PM also said that, in the next years, Moldova plans to make concrete steps from cooperation to cohesion with EU and citizens to have as many benefits as possible as a result of these actions.  

The tenth anniversary of the Eastern Partnership’s launch is marked this year – an event marked by a string of meetings and conferences. The Eastern Partnership represents an initiative of strengthening and deepening EU’s cooperation with six states from the eastern neighbourhood of the European Neighbourhood Policy: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. At the same time, each of the eastern partners is free to establish its degree of cooperation with EU. Thus, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine have chosen the maximum degree of rapprochement, signing Association Agreements and implementing all conditions for the visa regime’s liberalization.