On Friday 7 November, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola inaugurated Parliament’s office in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova.
“Today we open this office in Chișinău as a tangible expression of our belief in Moldova’s future within the European family” she explained in a statement.
This office will promote the Parliament’s positions and activities and support regional democracy and institutional reform. It will also facilitate the preparation and follow-up of official visits by MEPs, while strengthening cooperation with other EU players, international organisations and civil society on the ground, thereby fostering closer ties between the European Union and its neighbours, according to a European Parliament press release.
“This official inauguration of the European Parliament’s office at Chișinău will help us align our legislation with the European one. We’re talking about approximately 3,000 European acts which need to be transposed into over 1,000 national laws”, stressed President of Moldova Maia Sandu at a press conference. “This is an enormous effort, and the support of European Parliament will make the process clearer, more efficient and better coordinated. We are so grateful for your consistent partnership”, she added, standing alongside Ms Metsola.
European Parliament’s president also explained that her institution and Moldova’s parliament have committee to committee cooperation. Expressing her delight at the creation of a new committee for European integration in the Moldovan parliament, Ms Metsola said that this would provide “an incredible number of opportunities for the chairs of our committees on security, foreign affairs, enlargement, as well as all other thematic areas to work side by side on a daily basis along this path”. “Before we would rely on sporadic visits, of which there were many, and which were incredibly supportive, but we wanted to go a step further”, she explained. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)