Moldova has started talks with the European Union on a planned accord to give the country associated membership in the EU.
The first round of talks showed a serious degree of coincidence between the positions of Moldova and that of the EU, Gunnar Wiegand, director of the unit for Russia, Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia of the European Commission’s Directorate General for External Relations, told a news conference on Tuesday.
The EU and Moldova came to an agreement to set up four specialist working groups to conduct talks. They would specialize in politics and security, justice, foreign affairs, and personal data protection, Wiegand said.
There would also be negotiators for eight other sectors, including statistics, defense of the rights of consumers, environmental protection, education and research, he said.
Next month the European Commission would send an expert mission to Chisinau to analyze the visa regime and find out what amount of work is needed to liberalize it, Wiegand said.
He said that after this the European Parliament would make a decision on the volume of financial aid to Moldova. However, he added, this depended on Moldova’s relations with the International Monetary Fund.
