CZECHIA, SLOVAKIA, HUNGARY TO HELP MOLDOVA TO HARMONIZE LEGISLATION WITH EU NORMS

Countries of Visegrad Group - the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will help Moldova bring the national legislation in accordance with European standards. This is the main goal of the Twinning project, which was launched on Monday in the Moldovan Parliament.

Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu said that the project may be regarded as a new step in developing RM-EU relations.

"Moldova seeks to enter the EU, this is a difficult and long way for overcoming of which strong state institutions are necessary, The republic needs support, thus the idea of launching this project in cooperation with experienced Parliaments of the Visegrad Group appeared. Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary have a great experience in parliamentarism, measured by hundreds of years, as well as common with Moldova Socialist past", he said.

Ambassador Peter Michalko, Head of the European Union Delegation to Moldova said that the democracy is not just a certain stage, after achieving which one can stop doing anything, democracy should be continuously worked on.

"We are glad to launch the project with our partners in EU member countries. These will share their precious experience and skills to contribute to strengthening Moldova's institutional potential in the field of legislative procedures", Mikhalko said.

Chairman of the Slovakia National Council Committee on European Affairs Lubos Blaha said that for his country it is an honor to participate in this project and help a state with a resembling history and Soviet past.

"It is not enough to create institutions on European model, the European mood is necessary, which is especially difficult in crisis times, as people are not so happy about Europe as it is in calm times; citizens start to vote for extremists and seek alternative", Blaha stressed.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Moldova Zdenek Krejci expressed confidence that his country's experience in the process of European integration will become an important element in the project implementation.

According to the project, 60 experts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as from Poland, Latvia, France and Belgium, will contribute to the implementation of provisions, among which the conducting of assessment and roundtables, development of recommendations, consultative documents, researches, roadmap, as well as preparing educational materials and visits to the EU countries.

The Twinning project on strengthening the Moldovan Parliament capacities in the process of harmonizing national legislation with EU standards, designed for 2017-2019, is being implemented in Moldova by the Czech Parliament Chamber of Deputies, the Slovak National Council and the Hungarian National Assembly. The project budget accounts for 1.5 million euros.