Terra-1530

EU Legislative Interests

The Moldova Economic Growth Plan provides the first and most important tangible support to Moldova’s European integration aspirations, following the granting of EU candidacy status. It confirms EU commitment to support Moldova and its pro-European Government amid the unfolding economic, social, and energy crisis in this country, as well as Russian hybrid attacks on the social order and democratic structures in Moldova. The Moldova Growth Plan is the largest financial support package the EU has ever granted to Moldova, consisting of EUR 1.5 billion in concessional loans, EUR 285 million in non-repayable financial support (grants) and EUR 135 million set aside to provision the loans (9% provision on the total volume of concessional loans), planned for 2025-2027. While being an impressive support package, with a large expected impact, we recommend two conceptual adjustments to the above-mentioned parameters of this support. First, we suggest increasing the share of grants from the current 16% to 35%, followed by a proportional decrease in the share of concessional loans, given the difficult economic and social conditions in Moldova: slow economic growth or even stagnation, high poverty rate, persistent budgetary deficits exceeding 3% of GDP, inflationary risks stemming from the unfolding energy crisis and the exposure to the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Second, we encourage the extension of the duration from 3 to 5 years (2025-2029) while keeping the same budget envelope, given the bureaucratic procedures for receiving the funding and kick-starting the investment projects, relatively low absorption capacity of Moldova of external financial support and long duration of complex investments projects that are supposed to unleash the economic potential of the country. According to the Moldova Growth Plan Regulation, at least 25% of the loan amount released to Moldova should be made available by Moldova to investment projects approved under the NIP. Given the fact that about 2/3 of total external financial support to Moldova is usually directed for budgetary support and 1/3 – for investment projects, we recommend increasing the minimum share of loan amount to be directed for investments up to 35%. It will increase the contribution of the Facility on unleashing the economic potential, speeding up the economic growth and accelerating the convergence to EU countries. We salute that the disbursements of tranches will be conditional on the implementation of the specific Reform Agenda that the Government of Moldova must submit to the European Commission early 2025. In order to ensure that the Facility has maximum impact and EU taxpayers’ money are being used in the most effective manner, we stress on the critical importance to engage as much as possible the civil society organizations and experts’ community from Moldova in the processes of drafting the Reform Agenda, formulating the specific indicators, progress milestones, and providing input for the establishment of the Facility’s scoreboard, as well as independent monitoring of the Agenda implementation throughout the entire duration of the Facility. It will foster the checks-and-balances mechanisms and increase the accountability of the Government of Moldova in implementingthe implementation of its commitments. For the same reasons, the civil oversight is critically important in ensuring the independent monitoring and evaluation of the use of the financial support under this Facility. Also, civil society and expertsexperts’ community from Moldova should be engaged by the Government in drafting the monitoring system for the agenda implementation and Facility implementation, toin order to ensure maximum accountability and impact. We endorse the three pillars of the Moldova Growth Plan, as they will accelerate the country’s economic and legal convergence to EU standards and are suggesting the following priorities for each pillar, as follows: The Facility should be the main instrument.

Communication Activities

NGO “Terra-1530” is an umbrella-organization for other 18 ones: “Terra-HS”; Association for Youth Promotion “XXI Century”, etc.

Interests Represented

Promotes their own interests or the collective interests of their members

Member Of

DARE Network DARE Democracy and Human Rights Education in Europe c/o Lifelong Learning Platform Rue d' Industrie 10 1000 Brussels, Belgium www.dare-network.eu office@dare-network.eu

Organisation Members

https://www.facebook.com/consiliuregionalaltinerilor https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069904746373

Additional Information

https://petrubotnaru.wordpress.com/2022/04/06/some-results-of-the-project-promotion-and-application-of-energy-efficiency-aspects-through-thermal-insulation-of-the-facades-of-kindergarten-no-1-in-vorniceni/