The Moldovan-European Union Association Council met today at its 4th meeting to examine the progress made by our country in the implementation of the Moldova-EU Association Agreement after the previous Council of 31 March 2017.

The Delegation of the Republic of Moldova was led by Prime Minister Pavel Filip and the meeting was chaired by EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip said that for the third time he is participating in such a meeting, which brings our country closer to political association and economic integration in the EU. The Head of the Executive said that, in an open and friendly dialogue with European officials, the progress made by the Executive in the implementation of the Reform Agenda provided by the Association Agreement and the areas where further efforts have been made have been analyzed. Officials discussed continued justice reform, fighting corruption and money laundering, investigating bank fraud and stabilizing the financial and banking sector, and recent developments in the media.

The parties also spoke about progress in implementing the Free Trade Agreement. In 2017, the economy grew by 4.5% and exports almost 20%. Of the total exports, 65 percent go to the European Union. These positive developments have allowed the Chisinau authorities to request an increase in quotas for the export of table grapes, plums and cherries on the European market. On the economic dimension, reforms in the energy and transport sectors have also been reviewed.

European officials welcomed the recent progress in Transnistrian settlement and encouraged the sustainable positive dynamics. The parties have advocated strengthening bilateral dialogue and security cooperation, in order to increase the country's resilience to external and internal challenges.

"In spite of all problems our country and society have been faced, we continue to make a firm stance on political association and economic integration in the European Union. 

We are in an electoral year though, our intention is to promote reforms intensively. This is the position of the Chisinau Government, we manage and I believe that we will keep ourselves from the election campaign, as the way we have done throughout entire mandate", said Prime Minister Pavel Filip. 

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini said that the Republic of Moldova has made some progress that the EU recognize.

"Reforms have been made in several sectors, but there are key areas where more effort is needed to get concrete results, including fighting corruption, the banking sector and the electoral code," said Federica Mogherini.

The European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, appreciated the work of the Chisinau Executive:

"The Government has worked remarkably, we have to recognize this. It has adopted reforms which are not immediately supported by all citizens, but can help the country rejoin the European way. "

Additionally, Commissioner Hahn said that in order to receive the first installment of the macro-financial assistance, Moldova will fulfill two conditions - the National Integrity Authority will become fully operational and an additional budget will be adopted to allow the anti-corruption institutions to function. Thus, the first installment could arrive in Moldova in July or in the autumn.

The prime minister stressed that the Republic of Moldova is a country with strong European aspirations and the reforms made by the Government must go hand in hand with the commitment of the European partners to continue support our country in several fields.

"We will do our best to make the European choices of the Republic of Moldova truly irreversible. It is an objective that we have proposed at the beginning. It is very important that even after the parliamentary elections the implementation of the Association Agreement remains priority of the Government, "concluded Pavel Filip.