The second meeting of the EaP CSF Moldova National Platform was held

The second meeting of the EaP CSF Moldova National Platform was held on 11^th of November 2011. It was attended by representatives of the EC Delegation in Moldova and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova (MFAEI). The representatives of the EC Delegation and MFAEI presented their views about the Warsaw Summit and the future development of the EaP.

At the meeting the main points discussed were about the Association Agreement of Moldova with the EU. It dwelled on points relating the visa liberalization, Foreign Trade Agreement, Moldova’s aspirations and steps that need to be taken in order to join the EU and finally, but not lastly, the issue of migration. The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI) mentioned the necessity of involving the civil society in the discussion of various aspects of this Association Agreement. However it is understood that such implication would not involve the discussion of all the relevant points, as some of the important issues are not yet pubic and therefore can not be openly debated.

From the EU side, there were some relevant aspects that were mentioned and pointed out such as the use of community values as necessary elements in policy making, anti-discrimination law – and it was specifically stressed that the civil society had to play an active and constructive role in arguing for such law.

There were more questions to the Commission relating to the financial support given to civil society and specifically the problem of co-financing from local public authorities. The Commission offered several answers to this point that can resolve such apparent impediments. The Commission also mentioned that in the next few years the support to the civil society will increase and it will be significantly larger than in previous years, as can be seen and proven by the open local calls already launched for 2012 year.

The National Platform is specifically interested in the participation of representatives of civil society organizations at the meetings of Official (Governmental) Platforms of the Eastern Partnership, because one objective of the CSF is the monitoring and evaluation of the activities of the EaP. The National Platform also mentioned that a number of reports, working & actions plans are not yet public, though they should be and more worrying is that such transparency can not be seen in some cases where governmental officials say that they are public.

Finally, the presence of the Moldovan delegation at the EaP CSF in Poznan was discussed. The main issues discussed were the registration of CSF, the strategy for development of CSF and the main basis for establishment of the CSF plus a number of other issues related.

for more information, please, contact country facilitator Victor COTRUTA, Regional Environmental Centre Moldova

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