The European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, and Moldovan Prime Minister Maia Sandu signed three financial agreements on 24 July in Brussels for a total amount of 40.25 million euros.
Mr Hahn also announced the creation of a project team, within the European Commission's Directorate General 'NEAR', "to activate skills and knowledge in the Commission and Member States" to help Moldova on its path of reform.
The first programme, worth 23 million euros, aims to contribute to the socio-economic development of the Ungheni and Cahul regions, near the Romanian border. "We will work with local partners to create more jobs, support local SMEs, local actors and civil society and finance the development of small infrastructure", Mr Hahn explained, adding that the objective was to reduce development gaps with the capital. According to him, this program will strengthen local governance.
The second programme promotes gender equality and women's empowerment and international student exchanges through the Erasmus+ programme and will fund more mobility opportunities for Moldovan researchers. It has a budget of 9,25 million euros.
Finally, the third programme, worth 8 million euros, aims to increase the level of citizen participation in decision-making and strengthen anti-corruption mechanisms. This programme includes targeted actions on integrity education and the fight against corruption, so that citizens are more involved in the control of public institutions, Mr Hahn said.
The Prime Minister confirmed that corruption was "the main problem" in her country.
Earlier today, before the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mrs Sandu had already insisted on this point. "The main challenges are the reform of the judicial system and the establishment of an institution to fight corruption", she stressed, recalling that "everything must be rebuilt from the ashes of the oligarchy". The Prime Minister had placed particular emphasis on justice reform. "A large number of people in the judicial system are corrupt, politicized; therefore, this is a major challenge", she insisted.
Randomly on the agenda, on the same day, GRECO, the Council of Europe's anti-corruption body, called on the Moldovan authorities to step up their efforts to implement measures to prevent corruption against parliamentarians, judges and prosecutors.
Start all over again from scratch
Before the MEPs, Mrs Sandu listed the areas of action for her government: "We must create an effective prosecutor's office, fight corruption, have a fair judicial system, stop trafficking, false businesses that create an atmosphere conducive to corruption, reform health care and education." According to Mrs Sandu, her government is rethinking policies in most sectors.
She addressed the bank fraud, discovered in 2015. The equivalent of 12% of the country's GDP has disappeared from the banks. "Not a penny has been recovered and no one has been punished", she denounced, while "everyone in the country knows who stole the money". The Prime Minister had requested the cooperation of Member States, some of whose banks had allegedly recovered part of the funds and to help her country combat money laundering.
"We want to become a predictable and viable partner (...) We want to see Moldova as a European country, not just in words, but in everyday life", she stressed, explaining that the objective was, in the long run, to join the EU.
Several MEPs expressed concern about the strength of the coalition, which includes pro-Europeans and pro-Russians. And Mrs Sandu was not very convincing. She recalled that the parties had not had much time to discuss the government's agenda, as the objective was to quickly reach an agreement to overthrow the previous government. She herself considered it difficult to assess how long this coalition will last, but hoped that it would remain in place long enough to undertake the necessary reforms.
See the GRECO report: https://bit.ly/2LDL9eP (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)