Nine years pass since signing of Moldova-EU Association Agreement

Chisinau, 27 June /MOLDPRES/ - Moldova today marks the ninth anniversary of the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. This moment opened new opportunities and perspectives of development. One of the principal advantages of the Association Agreement is Moldova’s enhanced access to the single European market.   
The agreement represents a new legal framework, established for the advancement of the relations between Moldova and EU in all sectors of interest. It includes the creation of a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), the goal of which is to stimulate the economic integration and the political association between Moldova and the European Union.   
Thus, during those nine years since the signing of the Agreement, EU has consolidated its position of Moldova’s principal commercial partner, with about 63 per cent of the Moldovan exports going to the European market in 2022, reaching 2.6 billion euros. The number of companies exporting to EU also grew and account for over 70 per cent of the overall number of companies exporting to the EU market, especially to Romania, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic.   
Through the Association Agreement, Moldova has benefited from financial and technical support on behalf of EU, with a significant impact on the economic growth, creation of jobs and improvement of the citizens’ living standards. During years, Moldova has proved its firm commitment to the European values and made notable progress in the implementation of the Association Agreement and EU gave assurances that it would continue backing Moldova on its European integration way.   
During nine years since the signing of the Association Agreement, Moldova has made important steps on the way of getting closer to EU. Thus, one year ago, the country got the status of state candidate for accession to the European Union. At the same time, nine conditions were submitted to the Moldovan authorities to switch to the next phase – the one of negotiations, in the process of European integration.     
The Moldova-EU Association Agreement was signed on 27 June 2014 and ratified by the Moldovan parliament’s plenum on 2 July 2014. The European Parliament ratified the Association Agreement at its plenary meeting from 13 November 2014. As many as 535 European MPs voted for the ratification, 94 – against and 44 lawmakers abstained from voting.