
Poland to continue granting Moldova comprehensive support on its path to EU, contributing financially as well as promoting reforms.
This was stated by Polish President Andrzej Duda after his meeting in Warsaw with his Moldovan counterpart Maia Sandu, who paid an official visit to Poland at the invitation of the Polish President to mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Moldovan-Polish diplomatic relations. Andrzej Duda recalled that several weeks ago, following a decision of the European Council, Moldova got the status of candidate to the European Union. The Polish President stressed that the highest intergovernmental level has been holding consultations on how to carry out reforms in Moldova in order to facilitate the integration into European structures for more than a year. "We are trying to help the Moldovan authorities, both the President and the government, for instance, by sending experts and offering various types of material and financial assistance so that the reforms, the very difficult reform process, which we know about very well from the times when we sought to join the European Union, could take place smoothly," the Polish President added. He stressed that today both of our countries are in a difficult situation after Russia's aggression against Ukraine. "Moldova is in a particularly difficult situation because it not only borders Ukraine, but part of its territory, the so-called Transnistria, is a rebellious Russian enclave. This is a huge political problem faced by democratically elected authorities who want to reform the country. There is also the problem of the legacy of the Soviet era, when all Moldovan industry depended on supplies from Russia - mainly gas," Andrzej Duda recalled. "We are trying to support Moldova, but we understand that the situation is very difficult. All this affects inflationary pressures and impoverishes society. Given the above, it is absolutely justified that the entire European community, the states that are in a better financial situation today, should support Moldova," the Polish President added. Andrzej Duda recalled that the Polish government had earlier granted Moldova an interest-free loan of 20 million euros. He stressed that Poland supports the opening of the European market for Moldovan goods and strongly supports Moldova's efforts to join the EU structures. // 15.07.2022 - InfoMarket