On Tuesday 11 March, the European Parliament gave the green light by a large majority (499 votes in favour, 117 against and 40 abstentions) to the political agreement reached with the Council of the European Union on the ‘Moldova Reform and Growth Facility’, which will be endowed with around €1.9 billion (€1.5 billion in loans and €385 million in grants) over the period 2025-2027 (see EUROPE 13584/2).
“All pro-EU groups were united. Putin’s friends voted against it, they are isolated. They will not prevent us from helping our friends and candidate countries”, said Siegfried Mureşan (EPP, Romanian), the Parliament’s co-rapporteur.
He cited three elements that MEPs had obtained during the negotiations with a view to improving the initial proposal for a regulation: - faster disbursement of European funds from April, once Moldova’s investment and reform programme has been approved; - higher pre-financing of €315 million; - increased overall aid, set at €1.9 billion, including €385 million in subsidies.
Sven Mikser (S&D, Estonian), also a co-rapporteur welcomed the establishment of the Facility in a tense geopolitical context: “There is an acute energy crisis caused by the discontinuation of gas supplies by Gazprom and the true extent of Russian interference in the Moldovan presidential elections has been revealed”. The Facility will essentially enable investment in long-term growth factors such as “energy infrastructure and health”, he added.
To see the regulation establishing macro-financial assistance, go to https://aeur.eu/f/fvd (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)