Expert-Grup

Press Club: “Assessing the Republic of Moldova’s Progress in Implementing the European Commission’s Economic Recommendations in the EU Accession Process”

Thursday, 1 August 20242507 views
Press Club: “Assessing the Republic of Moldova’s Progress in Implementing the European Commission’s Economic Recommendations in the EU Accession Process”

Automatically translated summary. The full article is available in Romanian.

Independent Think Tank “Expert-Grup” held a press club with journalists to discuss the reforms of the Chișinău authorities in implementing European Commission recommendations on the economic chapters of EU accession. The discussion drew on the first independent monitoring report, produced with IPRE, IVC and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

The report scored the economic chapters out of 5: functioning market economy 3.1, public procurement 3, statistics 3.3 and financial control 3.7. On the market economy, progress was noted in connecting electricity and gas with the EU market, but the capacity to absorb infrastructure investment remains very low, and railway rehabilitation and road maintenance are underfunded.

On foreign direct investment, the national investment attraction and export promotion programme for 2024-2028 was approved only in early July, the economic diplomacy programme is unfinished, and net FDI inflows in 2023 fell by 28.8%. Security risks linked to Russian aggression remain the main obstacle. On public procurement, the recommendation to adopt a new programme was met, with the 2023-2026 programme approved in August 2023, but no progress report for 2024 has been published.

View the original article in Romanian