The EU will provide Moldova with additional financial aid worth 53 million euros, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy, Olivér Várhelyi, has said.
The European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Olivér Várhelyi announced this, noting that these funds are intended to help Moldova cope with the numerous consequences of Russian military aggression against Ukraine. This amount will be provided to Moldova as soon as possible in the form of a budget support program. The announcement was made at a ministerial conference in Berlin on the launch of the Moldova Support Platform. "As our supplementary package shows, we continue to provide support to help the country cope both with the serious consequences of Russia's war against Ukraine and with the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the energy crisis. European solidarity with Moldova is stronger than ever," he said. The European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy noted that the aforementioned budget support worth 53 million euros supplements the emergency aid already approved by the EU for Moldova, which includes: 150 million euros under the Macro-financial Assistance Program, to be disbursed in the coming months; 8 million euros in humanitarian aid for emergency assistance at border crossings, transit points and reception centers, as well as for basic living conditions for refugees in Moldova; 15 million euros to support decent and efficient processing of applications for refugee status and the safe transit and repatriation of third country nationals, in close cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM); 15 million euros to support the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM). The Mission has recently refocused its activities on assisting the Moldovan border guards in managing the arrival of refugees. The mission will work closely with Frontex, which will intensify its work in the country in line with the Status of Co-operation Agreement on Border Management signed between the EU and the Moldovan authorities on 17 March. Through the Civil Protection Mechanism, 18 countries (17 EU members plus Norway) have provided Moldova with a large number of items for housing, energy and health care. The Commission also mobilized medical equipment from U.S. medical stocks in Hungary and the Netherlands. In addition to crisis management, the EU continues to support Moldova's long-term recovery and sustainability, in particular through the Eastern Partnership Economic and Investment Plan, which aims to mobilize about 3.4 billion euros of public and private investment in five main areas: SME support, trade facilitation, energy efficiency, communications and human capital development. Last week, the European Investment Bank and Moldova agreed on a 150 million euros loan to connect Moldova to the TEN-T road network. // 06.04.2022 - InfoMarket
