EU Representatives Start Checking Moldova’s Pre-Accession Legislation

The first screening session in the negotiation process with the European Union started in Chisinau on 10 July. The topic for discussion was public procurement. The EU observers analyzed the national rules, the necessary elements of reforms and follow-up actions. Moldova has to prove that it can properly manage public money and efficiently administer European funds, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi says. ‘We will analyze all the conditions you have to meet to become a member state, and this will give us more precise answers to the question when and how Moldova can develop to become an EU member. It is not only about comparing legislation and administrative details, it is about creating institutions capable of following the rules,’ Várhelyi said. The discussions started with the fifth chapter on public procurement. This is a key chapter if our country wants to have access to the free market and European funds. ‘Transparency, fairness and capital management principles will open your access to the European public procurement market if you follow the same rules. The rules are important for your economic investment plans. If you apply European rules faster, you will get closer to receiving European funds,’ the European Commissioner added. ‘This process will help us better understand where we are in the accession process, how ready we are, what steps we need to take. This process will also help us organize ourselves in Moldova and in Brussels for the next steps of implementation in a way that will bring our national legislation in line with EU rules and standards,’ Cristina Gherasimov, Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration replied. During the bilateral screening, which will last about 18 months, Moldova will have to express whether it accepts Community norms for each of the 35 chapters and what are the plans to implement the identified differences in legislation. It will be necessary to clarify whether Moldova wants to establish transitional periods for certain areas and in which European programs it intends to participate before actual accession. In total over 1200 experts are involved in the process, who will analyze the transposition of EU legislation into our country’s legislation.