EU — REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA COOPERATION COUNCIL, THIRTEENTH MEETING

The Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil wel­comed the pos­i­tive dynam­ics in EU — Repub­lic of Moldo­va rela­tions and the devel­op­ments achieved since its last meet­ing in June 2010. In this con­text, the Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil stressed the oppor­tu­ni­ties pro­vid­ed by the East­ern Part­ner­ship, includ­ing its mul­ti­lat­er­al dimen­sion.

The EU wel­comed Moldova’s Euro­pean aspi­ra­tions and com­mit­ment to the goals of polit­i­cal asso­ci­a­tion and eco­nom­ic inte­gra­tion, and under­lined its deter­mi­na­tion to move for­ward with con­crete mea­sures to ensure that reforms in the Repub­lic of Moldo­va can be sus­tained and yield tan­gi­ble results for the population.

The Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil recalled the impor­tance of respect­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic stan­dards and the rule of law, and of cre­at­ing an atmos­phere of inclu­sive­ness, in find­ing a way out of the cur­rent polit­i­cal stand-off about the elec­tion of the next Pres­i­dent of the Repub­lic of Moldo­va. The EU wel­comed the pos­i­tive assess­ment of the Novem­ber 2010 par­lia­men­tary elec­tions by the OSCE/ODIHR Elec­tion Obser­va­tion, and expressed expec­ta­tion that the local elec­tions of June 2011 will show fur­ther progress towards com­pli­ance with inter­na­tion­al standards.

The Coop­er­a­tion Coun­cil also expressed sat­is­fac­tion at the good progress made in nego­ti­a­tions on the future EU-Moldo­va Asso­ci­a­tion Agree­ment. It reviewed the state of play towards the start of nego­ti­a­tions on a deep and com­pre­hen­sive free trade area, and the recent achieve­ments in bilat­er­al co-oper­a­tion the areas of avi­a­tion, research and ener­gy. It also stressed the val­ue of deep­en­ing sec­toral coop­er­a­tion to sus­tain struc­tur­al reforms in the Repub­lic of Moldova. 

The EU expressed appre­ci­a­tion for the Moldovan Government’s com­pre­hen­sive reform pro­gramme, and its pro-active con­sul­ta­tions with the EU and oth­er donors on how best to assist such reforms. At the same time, the EU stressed the impor­tance of imple­ment­ing and deep­en­ing the reforms ini­ti­at­ed in the past years, with par­tic­u­lar respect to the fight against cor­rup­tion; the improve­ment of the busi­ness cli­mate; and com­pre­hen­sive reforms in the area of jus­tice, free­dom and security.

The EU expressed full sup­port for the Moldovan Government’s efforts to meet its inter­na­tion­al com­mit­ments to macro-eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­sa­tion. It wel­comed the release of the third tranche under the IMF Extend­ed Cred­it Facility/Extended Fund­ing Facil­i­ty Arrange­ments and announced its inten­tion to launch the prepara­to­ry steps for a sec­ond dis­burse­ment of EU macro-finan­cial assistance.

The EU wel­comed Moldova’s strength­ened coop­er­a­tion in the area of for­eign and secu­ri­ty pol­i­cy. It also stressed its increased engage­ment in the Transnis­tria set­tle­ment efforts, includ­ing through con­tin­ued EUBAM sup­port and con­fi­dence-build­ing mea­sures. It recalled its efforts in sup­port of the resump­tion of offi­cial set­tle­ment talks, exclu­sive­ly in the inter­na­tion­al­ly recog­nised “5+2” format.

The EU was rep­re­sent­ed by Mr. Zsolt Németh, Min­is­ter of State for For­eign Affairs of Hun­gary and Head of the Euro­pean Union Del­e­ga­tion and Mr. Šte­fan Füle, Euro­pean Com­mis­sion­er for Enlarge­ment and Euro­pean Neigh­bour­hood Pol­i­cy. Prime Min­is­ter Vladimir Filat led the Moldovan delegation. 

Source:
Coun­cil of the Euro­pean Union 

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