Presidency of the Republic of Moldova
Dear President, Emmanuel Macron,
Welcome to Chisinau.
I appreciate your decision to visit the Republic of Moldova. It is the first visit of a French President in twenty-four years. It is also symbolic that you are visiting us in the year when we mark thirty years of bilateral diplomatic relations.
The relationship between our countries has become much more dynamic during the last year and a half. Thank you for your personal commitment to strengthening it. Frequent and productive contacts confirm the special character of the Moldovan-French friendship.
We have a substantial bilateral agenda. Today, the governments of our countries will sign three agreements that are important for the Republic of Moldova.
The Convention on the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of tax evasion, long-awaited by Moldovan and French businesses, will be signed right after this press conference and will help us attract more French investments.
The second one is the Agreement on the activities of the French Development Agency, Proparco and Expertise France in the Republic of Moldova. The signing officially launches the development cooperation between Moldova and France that has started last year.
The third agreement concerns the approval of a €15 million credit agreement from the French Development Agency for our country. We appreciate this budgetary support, especially in this difficult period for us.
The French Development Agency has already announced its intention to finance projects in the areas of renewable energy, railways, irrigation, water supply and sanitation.
With the Agency's support, the Chisinau-Ungheni railway segment will be rehabilitated and modernised, opening up the prospect of connecting the Moldovan railway network to the European network.
Proparco, a partner of the French Development Agency, will offer favourable loans to small and medium enterprises in rural areas and in the agricultural sector. The loan programme will support around 3600 new jobs over the next five years.
We count on the cooperation between the French National Forestry Office and Moldsilva to support the reforestation programme, which is a priority for us.
France and the Republic of Moldova have initiated a good dialogue in the area of the fight against corruption, including the recovery of stolen assets. Cooperation between our countries over the past year has led to the identification of several assets on the French territory originating from Moldova.
The institutional dialogue between the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the French Agency for the Recovery and Management of Seized and Confiscated Assets needs to be strengthened in order to return these assets to Moldova.
We launched, as well, the cooperation between the National Integrity Authority of the Republic of Moldova and the French High Authority for Transparency in Public Life.
Policemen and border police officers from Moldova, students of the Police Academy participate in specialized trainings offered by the French authorities. French police officers work alongside their Moldovan colleagues at our border crossing points as part of the Frontex Mission.
France is also an important economic partner for us. There are 220 French-owned companies operating in Moldova, including large, well-known companies in telecommunications, information technology, agri-food and manufacturing.
We encourage the French companies to invest in the renewable energy sector in Moldova.
The Republic of Moldova and France have developed a very good cooperation in the educational and cultural sectors over the years. Moldova is a French-speaking country. French is taught in hundreds of schools in Moldova. Many high schools in Moldova have bilingual classes, where some of the school subjects are taught in French.
The Alliance Française, which has been active in Moldova for thirty years, has recently opened its fifth office in the city of Cahul. Francophone branches operate in six Moldovan universities with the support of the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie.
We have very good people-to-people contacts. We have a large community of Moldovan citizens living in France, either studying or working. In this context, we are interested in signing an agreement in the field of social security.
Mr President,
France has stood by the Republic of Moldova for thirty years, including in difficult times, as the one we are going through today, with Russia's war against Ukraine at our border.
Moldova has strongly condemned the Russian military aggression. We have advocated for peace to be restored. From the very first day, Moldovan citizens have opened their hearts and homes to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
State institutions, civil society and ordinary citizens have shown solidarity with the people of Ukraine in an unprecedented gesture of unity. Nearly 80,000 Ukrainians - children, elderly and women - remain in our country today.
We are grateful for the thirty-seven tons of humanitarian aid, the seventeen electric generators distributed to hospitals in the Republic of Moldova, and France’s decision to relocate 2,500 refugees.
We also appreciate deeply France's role in organising, together with Germany and Romania, the Support Platform for Moldova to help us overcome the consequences of the war, and of the energy crisis that our country faces.
Despite all the difficulties, we want to increase our efforts to change the lives of the people of Moldova for the better. We have started reforming the justice and prosecution sectors in order to give citizens and businesses the assurance that their rights and property are protected. We have started the extraordinary external evaluation in the judicial system.
We are working to consolidate democracy in our country. Moldova has risen by 49 positions in the Global Press Freedom Index in just one year. We are taking firm action to strengthen the capacity of state institutions, but also to facilitate investment and improve the investment climate in the Republic of Moldova.
We have very good cooperation in all areas with the European Union, which is our country's main economic and development partner. Our economy is increasingly interconnected with the European economy. Two thirds of Moldovan exports go to the European Union.
In this context, we are grateful to the European Commission and the EU Member States for the decision to facilitate greater access to the European market for fruit and other products from the Republic of Moldova that have lost access to markets in the East because of the war.
The Republic of Moldova is a European country, with people who share European values. A country that undoubtedly will have a European future. On 3 March 2022, the Republic of Moldova applied to join the European Union. For us, joining the European Union is the strategic option to remain part of the free world, especially in the current security context.
We hope that our application will be supported by the EU Member States at the Summit in Brussels on 23-24 June.
We count, Mr President, on France's continued support for the Republic of Moldova's candidate status. In the difficult circumstances in which we find ourselves, this important step will help us continue the reforms we have initiated and to strengthen our democracy.
We know that Moldova's European integration will be a long and complex process, which will require sustained efforts. Let me be clear: we are not looking for shortcuts in this process. We are ready to do our homework - and we want to be assessed based on merit and on the results of our work.
In this context, we welcome your initiative regarding the European Political Community, which we support and wish to be part of. This is not an alternative to our European path, but a complementary initiative that will help us in the process of European integration.
We want to strengthen our partnership with the European Union in the political and security field. The Republic of Moldova wants to be a contributor, a part of the solutions to European problems. We do not want to be only a consumer of benefits. We want to be a state that contributes to a stronger, more integrated, more influential Europe at the global level. And we continue to prove this, including through the contribution of our Government and our society to managing the refugee crisis and the effects of the war.
Together, we can contribute to a European Union that must become a genuine geopolitical actor in the service of peace, human rights, security and stability, and that must have the tools to face all challenges.
The European path of the Republic of Moldova, the continuation of domestic reforms, the strengthening of the political and development dialogue between Moldova and France - for all this, first and foremost, we need peace. The efforts of the international community must now be directed towards stopping Russian aggression and restoring peace in Ukraine. We must stop the manslaughter, save the lives of the brave people of Ukraine - and thus protect the freedom and well-being of Europe.
