Moldova: With President Timofti about drawing lessons from political crisis
Strasbourg (2nd July) – Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Štefan Füle met with President of Moldova Nicolae Timofti in Strasbourg today. They exchanged views on the latest developments in the country and the ambitions in the joint agenda related to the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius later this year.
"While welcoming the end of the political crisis in Chisinau, I underlined the importance of drawing all the necessary lessons from it, and of sharpening focus on the needs of the citizens," Commissioner Füle said after the meeting. "I have expressed strong expectations that the serious issues revealed by the political crisis would be addressed without undue delay and that the future support of the EU would depend on how the politicians in Moldova deliver on the lessons learnt," he added.
Commissioner Füle and President Timofti agreed that a robust system of checks and balances needed to be put in place and strengthened in order to ensure the independent behaviour of all state institutions, whose politicisation was one of the root causes of corruption and political instability. They also discussed importance of further reforming the justice system where there is a need to improve the independence and functioning of judiciary, including improving the professional standards. In this context Commissioner Füle recalled the recently signed €60m program for justice reforms: "This is an unprecedented support and we need to make sure that it delivers on the strengthening of the independence, impartiality and professionalism of the judiciary in Moldova."
Talking about the EU-Moldova agenda until the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Summit in Vilnius on 29 November Commissioner Füle referred to the process of finalising negotiations of the Association Agreement and repeated the expectation that this agreement could be initialled by the time of the EaP Vilnius provided the issues raised by the political crisis in Moldova would be addressed with energy and responsibility. "It is important for the politicians and the administration to be able to use the Association agreement, and the opportunities it offers, to overcome the polarisation of the society and to show that it brings benefits to all the citizens. And the economic part of this agreement could be a way how to also involve businesses from Transnistria, again - for the benefit of all the people in that region."