EU to earmark 36 million euros for development of local communities, mass media, ensuring access to justice in Moldova

Chisinau, 17 December /MOLDPRES/ - The European Union will back three new projects of support for Moldova, worth 36 million euros, which will contribute to developing local communities, mass media and to ensuring the access to justice, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

The projects were announced at a today’s festive event, organized on the Team Europe platform, the goal of which is to provide support to the EU partner countries in the fight against the pandemic. Attending the event was Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, along with EU Ambassador to Moldova Janis Mazeiks, ambassadors of EU member states, representatives of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Investment Bank (EIB), key partners of the Team Europe initiative.    

In her speech, PM Gavrilita thanked Team Europe for the continuous support provided to Moldova to overcome the impact of the pandemic, in order to improve the citizens’ living standards. ‘’Team Europe means unity, solidarity and concrete support for our country on behalf of the European Union and the member states, as well as of the financial institutions. We were the first European country to benefit from the COVAX Facility and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, getting more than one million doses of vaccines. At the same time, the member states, such as Romania, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary and Germany, provided protection equipment medical apparatus worth over 20 million euros. These donations saved many lives,’’ Natalia Gavrilita said.      

The PM also touched upon the importance of the EU assistance for the national economy, referring to the EU’s Plan on Economic Recovery worth 600 million euros. The European Commission has already disbursed 50 million euros as emergency macro-financial assistance, meant for efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova. Another 36.4 million euros represents non-refundable assistance for strengthening the resilience of the health system, backing the process of economic recovery, police reform, as well as counteracting the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The prime minister appreciated also the EU support provided to Moldova to overcome the gas crisis. ‘’This week, we signed in Brussels an agreement on financing for 60 million euros, non-refundable money, which will directly contribute to the support of the consumers from the vulnerable categories, so that they can cope with the increase in the energy prices. The means will be used also for adopting additional measures of economic and social support, as well as for consolidating the energy security and improving the energy efficiency,’’ the prime minister noted.   

Those three projects launched by the Team Europe team have an overall budget of 36 million euros, - money earmarked by EU and member states, such as Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Austria, Lithuania, France.

Photo: Government