MOLDOVA WILL GET TWO TRANCHES OF MACRO-FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE THIS YEAR - PREMIER FILIP

Prime Minister Pavel Filip summarized the results of his last-week visit to Brussels in an interview to Moldpres news agency.

"Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn said that the provision of financial assistance depends on the activity of the National Integrity Body, on the adoption of additional budget for the activity of anti-graft institutions and on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the implementation of the stand-by agreement", Filip said.

He stressed that the Government established good relations with the IMF, the results meet expectations, thus in June we expect positive assessment of IMF Board of Directors.

"As for the other two conditions, the Government will ensure their quick fulfillment in order to again prove that it completely supports the fight against corruption. Now our goal is to fulfill all the conditions before the end of the current parliamentary session for getting all the three tranches of macro-financial assistance, but not only one. I am sure that we will receive the first two tranches already this year", the Premier said.

According to him, the authorities will do their best to get the third tranche, but most likely that it will arrive already after the elections.

"We will keep working on the fulfillment of all conditions and the money will definitely arrive. These funds are very important for the economic growth, efficient state investments and strengthening the state efficiency", Filip said.

He maintains that over the last two years, Moldova achieved good results in combating corruption.

"The common declaration after the sitting of the Association Council includes the Law on combating money laundering and the reforming of the justice sector. We will ensure administrative and financial support to new institutions. We have many times expressed our opinion in connection with the election legislation. Most recommendations of the Venice Commission was fulfilled, the legislative framework is correct, while politicians have just to focus on presenting decent political projects to citizens", the premier said.

As Infotag has already reported, the issue on allocating macro-financial assistance worth 100 million euros to Moldova, has been discussed for already half-a-year. It was supposed that the assistance will be provided in 2017-2018. 60 million of this sum should arrive in the form of credits, while 40 million - in the form of grants. The decision on providing assistance was approved in January 2017 by the European Commission, on April 12 - by the EU countries at the level of ambassadors, while on July 6 - by the European Parliament. However, the providing of assistance was postponed several times due to the fact that the Moldovan Parliament ignored Venice Commission and OSCE recommendations and adopted the decision on moving to mixed election system.

After that, the EU has put new conditions, toughening the demands on providing assistance and among others, putting political conditions. For providing the assistance, Moldova has to fulfill 28 conditions. Moldovan authorities insist that they completely fulfilled 10 conditions for providing the first tranche. Before, Prime Minister Pavel Filip stated that the first tranche will come before the end of 2017, then he said that the money will arrive in March 2018.