October 8, 2024 – Cristina Gherasimov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, held an important discussion with representatives of the business community, members of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, within the framework of Working Group 5 “Increasing the competitiveness of the Republic of Moldova in the context of EU accession”, led by Dan Nuțiu, Executive President of the Association of Romanian Investors in Moldova. During the discussion, Cristina Gherasimov presented the current stage of the negotiation process and outlined the next steps to strengthen the country’s European path.

Plans for the transposition of European legislation, which will have a significant impact on the economic framework of the Republic of Moldova, were also discussed. The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the importance of cooperation between authorities and the business community in adapting the national economy to European standards and regulations, underlining that these joint efforts will contribute to increasing the country’s competitiveness on the European market. According to Cristina Gherasimov, the business association sector will have the opportunity to provide the necessary expertise in the process of transposing EU acquis and standards into national legislation and to communicate the potential impacts expected from the implementation of EU legislation.

In this context, the Deputy Prime Minister urged the business association sector to carefully examine Cluster 2 “Internal Market”, which represents a crucial negotiation package within the framework of the Republic of Moldova’s accession process to the European Union. This cluster focuses on aligning Moldova’s national legislation with the EU acquis in the field of the Single European Market and is structured into several negotiation chapters, including: free movement of goods, free movement of workers, the right of establishment and the freedom to provide services, free movement of capital, company law, intellectual property law, competition policy, financial services, consumer protection and public health. Members of the Economic Council to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova stated that they are open to providing support to state institutions. In the process of accession to the European Union, the Republic of Moldova must transpose a significant number of European directives and regulations into national legislation.

And in this regard, to ensure effective cooperation with the business community, it is crucial that it has access to complete and up-to-date information about the deadlines and timetables of the aforementioned process, the participants in the meeting added. At the end of the discussions, the following steps were agreed upon in the process of involving the business community in the actions to harmonize national regulatory acts with EU legislation. In this regard, questionnaires will be conducted among the business community.

These will highlight the areas and EU regulations that are most sensitive for entrepreneurs, allowing the Government to focus on the priority aspects for economic operators in the process of harmonizing European legislation with that of the Republic of Moldova.  

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.