18 October 2021 – The legislature has voted in first reading legislative changes that would allow Moldova to unilaterally recognise EU e-signatures.

After the second reading vote, only qualified EU advanced e-signatures would be recognized, which would allow existing investors to sign documents in Moldova and submit documents from EU states that are no longer issued by authorities on paper.

This, according to the authors of the document, would allow to harness an enormous potential for attracting investment from the EU area to Moldova and reduce the constraints for foreign investors already operating in Moldova. Because Moldova does not recognise electronic signatures from the EU, Moldova misses millions of euros of investment in just one year, state authorities claim.

Legislative changes in this regard were drafted by experts as part of the implementation of the Roadmap for boosting the digitisation of the national economy and the development of e-commerce. The document is being implemented by the Ministry of Economy jointly with the Economic Council to the Prime Minister of Moldova and with international expertise provided through the International Finance Corporation, EBRD, GIZ, USAID.

The Secretariat of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister is supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, funded by the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund.