OREANDA-NEWS. November 17, 2010. This was announced by the head of the European Commission Delegation to Moldova Dirk Schubel, noting that earlier the EU had significantly increased the bilateral assistance, provided to Moldova, and financing volume continued to grow every year.

Dirk Schubel emphasized that in addition to bilateral projects Moldova benefited from macro-financial assistance worth 90 million Euros, as well as from assistance in the frame of a number of ambitious regional initiatives, such as: Eastern Partnership, cooperation in the Black Sea basin, Danube Strategy, EU Mission of assistance on Moldavian-Ukrainian border, etc.

According to Dirk Schubel, the whole set of bilateral, regional and trans-border assistance allows using various instruments to support Moldova and reinforce its ties with its neighbors and the EU. The EU also concentrates its support on essential services and facilities such as the sectors of health, water supply and rural development - which are of direct benefit to the citizens. In these areas the EU is providing significant budget support to the Moldavian government.

Moldova and the EU are also trying to approximate their economies, with the objective of establishing a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. This perspective assumes huge opportunities for Moldovan enterprises to activate trade with their EU partners. It also implies very important reforms to approximate the Moldovan legislation with EU norms and standards. This is why an important part of EU assistance has been also focusing on key business environment indicators such as competition law, public procurement, etc.