OREANDA-NEWS. June 26, 2012. Hungarian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Moldova Gyorgy Varga said that "logically, Moldova should benefit from the EU's visa free regime next year". "Moldova successfully completed the first stage of the EU-integration roadmap, adopted the required laws and now is going to implement them," Varga said at a news conference today, occasioned by the completion of his mandate to Moldova.

Speaking about the disputed law on equality of opportunities, Gyorgy Varga said that the adoption of this law was a needed move. Thus, representatives of sexual minorities will not be prompted to seek political asylum in the EU states, on grounds that there are no such laws in Moldova. In the pre-adoption period, the above legislative act had been bitterly criticized by the national religious organizations claiming that the law s provisions run counter to the Christian moral norms.

In the second stage, Moldova will have to prove its capacity to enforce the adopted laws, the Hungarian envoy said, stressing that the main actors in this field will be the employees of the Border Guards and Migration Services, as well as those of the Informational Development and Interior Ministries. "My personal opinion is that the Transnistrian issue will not hinder Moldova's EU integration line, since these two processes are unfolding concurrently".

Since April 2007, the Chisinau-based Hungarian embassy has been administrating the Common Visa Centre, which issues entrance permits for 15 states. The ambassador noted that the documents' rejection rate decreased from 13 per cent in 2009 to 7.6 per cent in 2011. The most demanded destination for Moldovans is Greece, with 39 per cent, Hungary - 12.8 per cent and Austria - 11.1 per cent. In 2011, the centre processed about 20,000 visa applications.