Moldovan PM, EU commissioner give public lecture to students

Chisinau, 18 May /MOLDPRES/ - Prime Minister Pavel Filip and European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu have encouraged students to fully benefit from EU projects, in order to get European quality education and directly contribute to Moldova’s development. The officials made the appeal at a today’s public lecture given at the Academy of Economic Studies (ASEM), the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.    

The interactive discussions were focused on Moldova’s European agenda, regional development and benefits of the integration into EU, especially for young people. The prime minister said that the implementation of the Association Agreement was the government’s basic priority and, to bring the citizens’ living as close as possible to the EU living standards, the authorities promote an ambitious agenda of reforms.  

Referring to the goals for the next period, Pavel Filip stressed the attention he was personally paying to the fields of justice, infrastructure and education. “We cannot look to the future without having a quite clear vision on what we must do to have a qualitative education. We can no longer continue with the same syllabi which have been so far, as the education we got in the industrial age is no longer good in the information one. It is necessary for us to see how the curriculum should be and what young people born in the information age are oriented to,” the PM said. In this respect, he stressed the importance of cooperating with EU.     

The European Commissioner for Regional Policy reiterated EU’s openness to provide support on the education segment, noting that young people represent an important part of the Moldova-European Union relation. Corina Cretu touched upon the ERASMUS+ programme, from which over 800 students and teachers of Moldova have already benefited. Also, the European official highlighted EU’s willingness to contribute to creating better conditions for living, with emphasis on the development of settlements: “Moldova is a country we want to help and which we want to as quickly as possible meet the criteria, in order to be a member of the EU family.”      

The dialogue between the officials and students was sincere and constructive. Young people put more questions about the European Union’s regional policy, projects due to be carried out in settlements, turning to good account of European funds, as well as opportunities of development for students. The IT industry was mentioned as key sector for the economy, as well as for the training of specialists. Students proposed to set up joint groups with young people from EU member states, to exchange experience on the European integration.   

In the end of the dialogue, the PM launched the idea to hold a meeting between the cabinet of ministers and young EU ambassadors, to discuss problems from the society and solutions proposed by young people to overcome them.