Moldovan president statement after meeting with European Commission delegation

Chisinau, 4 June /MOLDPRES/- Statement by Moldovan President Maia Sandu after meeting with European Commission delegation arrived in Chisinau for presentation of Economic Recovery Plan offered by the European Union

4 June 2021

Mrs Mathernova, thank you once again for this good news, for the support the European Union is giving us and for the effort your team has made to make this support come so quickly.

This economic recovery plan is offered to us at a time of great difficulty for the Republic of Moldova. We are going through a pandemic crisis and an economic crisis. Many of the companies and economic agents in the Republic of Moldova have been affected by this economic crisis, many people have lost their jobs, lost their incomes, and this program will help us recover the economy much faster and to be able to help those who are in need.

I would also like to give some figures for the pillars you mentioned;

- Out of the 600 million euros, about 220 million are planned for proper management of public money, as you mentioned.

- For the second pillar, which provides support for small and medium-sized enterprises and projects in our communities, about 100 million euros are planned.

- For the third pillar that provides investment in infrastructure, we are talking about an amount of 230 million euros. I want to mention here that this pillar also provides measures for the conservation of the Dniester River and better management of water resources. I remind you that this was our concrete request during the discussions we had in January, in Brussels.

- For the next pillar, pillar four, which involves support for education, 25 million euros are planned.

- 25 million euros are planned for the pillar of justice reform, fight against corruption and strengthening of state institutions capacity.

We are honored that currently the Republic of Moldova is the only country in the Eastern Partnership that benefits from such an economic recovery program. We understand very well that these resources can materialize if there is a serious effort from all the country's institutions. Effort for this money to be used in the interest of the citizens. Clear evidence that the institutions of the Republic of Moldova are able to stop corruption, are able to reform the judiciary, are able to improve the business environment.

It is important to come up with financial aid for economic agents, but it is just as important or perhaps even more important to make sure that economic agents are not harassed by all kinds of state institutions, that they are not required to pay all kinds of taxes and many other things. These resources provided by the European Union will be used and will have good results if there is effort on the part of state institutions to achieve these results. I repeat: justice reform, fight against corruption are the main expectations that the European Union has for us. And these are the main expectations of Moldovan citizens.

I would like to thank the European Commission once again, I would like to thank Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission for sending me this letter on the Plan two days ago, and I would like to thank once again the whole team that worked on this plan and who will work with us so that we can best implement this assistance program.

photo: Presidency