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Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă met with the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu

PRESS RELEASE

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă: The Romanian Government reaffirms its unconditional support for the Republic of Moldova along its European path and also for strengthening the Republic of Moldova’s economy and maintaining its stability and security in the face of the challenges in the region

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă, on his first official visit to Chisinau, was received today by the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu. On this occasion, Mrs. Maia Sandu thanked Romania for all the support granted so far so that the population and the economy of the Republic of Moldova get through the complicated winter determined by an exponential rise in the energy and gas prices, as well as by the acute shortage of supply of these resources, especially by the Gazprom’s cut in the supply for several months.

In turn, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă thanked for the decision of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova to adjust the legislation in line with the Constitutional Court’s ruling, respectively to grant the Romanian language the status of the official language of the Republic of Moldova.

"The visit to Chisinau, a soul place for Romanians, allows me to reaffirm our unconditional support for the Republic of Moldova along the European process, but also for the development of its economy, the implementation of reforms, and the well-being of all its citizens. I particularly appreciate the exemplary way in which the authorities of the Republic of Moldova have managed, with broad international support, the security situation and the current threats. Romania will always stand by the Republic of Moldova, regardless of the difficulty of security issues in the region", stated Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă.

President Maia Sandu presented the steps taken by the Republic of Moldova to fulfill the nine recommendations of the European Commission to prepare for the opening of accession negotiations to the European Union. The main judiciary issues were invoked in parallel with the efforts of the Government of the Republic of Moldova to ensure the stability, security, and safety of each citizen. Regarding these aspects, Mrs. President Maia Sandu welcomed the special cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, to overcome the challenges generated by the repeated attempts of the Russian Federation to destabilize the political and social situation in the Republic of Moldova.

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă emphasized Romania's total commitment to supporting the Republic of Moldova, both along its European journey and for consolidating the country’s economic situation and maintaining its stability and security in the face of the hybrid challenges to which it is subjected.

At the same time, the state of implementation of the support program financed with 100 million euros by the Government of Romania was also presented on this occasion. In this respect, Prime Minister Nicolae –Ionel Ciucă announced the release of the first tranche of 25 million euros of this program, which was approved by the Government of Romania.

From the perspective of cooperation at the level of the business sector, both sides showed openness to encourage the business sector on both banks of the Prut to collaborate in areas of mutual interest and relevant for the economic development potential.

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă is accompanied on his official visit by the Minister of Defence, Angel Tîlvâr, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, the Minister of Digitalization, Sebastian Burduja, and the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Mircea Abrudean.

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Joint press statements by Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă and Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Dorin Recean

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Dorin Recean: Dear Prime Minister Ciucă, I am very glad to welcome you today in Chisinau. It is only three weeks from my visit to Bucharest, on March 1.  Thank you for the pragmatic and open discussion about concrete ways of deepening and expanding our Strategic Partnership for the European integration of the Republic of Moldova. Due to the backing and aid from Romania, European Union, and Member States, we managed to get well through winter. I reconfirm to citizens: we are not alone; we are part of a family of friends that we can always rely on.  I chose to get personally involved in the development of a close relationship with Romania. As I have already stated in Bucharest, Romania is our advocate in all European institutions. Thus, we can advance our European path, regardless of the security challenges posed by Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. We managed to rapidly and effectively coordinate with Bucharest on mutual interest dossiers, in the spirit of solidarity and a special relationship in which we share the past, manage the present and build the future. President Maia Sandu promulgated a law yesterday confirming an undeniable historical truth: the official language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian. Today, we agreed with Prime Minister Ciucă upon the joint actions of perspective in the implementation of our national program for the next three years regarding the learning of Romanian by the national minorities of the Republic of Moldova, including the adult population.

Expanding economic relations is another important topic on the agenda. We identified more opportunities for investment, trade, and development of joint projects. The targeted sectors are energy, information technologies, telecommunications, financial-banking services, capital markets integration, and tourism. Trade and social exchanges will be facilitated by the expansion of the interconnection infrastructure. We are determined to develop the bridge infrastructure across the Prut, we will improve cross-border connectivity. The first specific milestone: in May, we launch traffic on the Leova-Bumbăta pontoon bridge; the modernization of three existing bridges (Sculeni, Sculeni-Cahul-Oancea, Leușeni-Albita) follows, and we aim to approve and sign the corresponding agreements in April.

We are working to boost the interconnection capacity of electrical networks, but also, very importantly, to integrate the energy market infrastructure by organizing trading platforms. Our citizens will feel the benefits of the collaboration of the governments of Chisinau and Bucharest following the activation in April of the joint control regime at the Leușeni-Albita Border Crossing Point. The numerous projects and initiatives financed by Romania in important fields through which the living standards of our citizens become better are already known. I will mention: scholarships for pupils and students, SMURD services, the modernization of hundreds of kindergartens, donations of school minibuses, the renovation of buildings from our cultural heritage, the provision of energy resources, the provision of access to natural gas deposits and unprecedented openness to ensure prosperity, but also national security. I am very glad to announce, together with the Prime Minister, that already 58 infrastructure projects from the "European Village" Program will be capitalized immediately. Additionally, laboratories will be endowed in schools and school buses will be purchased for our children. This is the first stage, with a total value of 25 million euros, of the agreement on the non-reimbursable assistance worth 100 million euros, generously offered by Romania. Projects of this kind aim to improve the quality of life of every citizen. Mr. Prime Minister Ciucă, please know that there is no locality that does not have a Romanian presence and I express my strong belief that this presence will be increasing and it will be reciprocal. I will conclude by reiterating the strategic priority of the Government in Chisinau, unconditionally supported by the Government in Bucharest, namely the acceleration of reforms to bring Europe home, for accession to the European Union by 2030. Meanwhile, we ensure peace and security, boost the economy, and develop an effective public service closer to the citizens. Thank you! Thank you Romania, and thank you Prime Minister Ciucă!

Nicolae –Ionel Ciucă: Mr. Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen, dear citizens of the Republic of Moldova, good afternoon! I am very glad to be in Chisinau, today, at the invitation of my counterpart, Mr. Prime Minister Dorin Recean, shortly after he paid an official visit to Bucharest.

We have a dense bilateral agenda, projects for raising our citizens’ living standards and for closer relations on both sides of the Prut. It is the reason why I am accompanied on my visit today by several members of my Cabinet. My goal was to have as applied and pragmatic dialogue as possible on topics of central interest, including at the sectoral level.

We discussed our steps to repair and build, as Prime Minister stated, new bridges over the Prut river, open new border crossing points, implement the project on coordinated border control, train personnel in various sectors of activity and structures of the Republic of Moldova, and develop our energy infrastructure.

As I mentioned during our bilateral meeting as well as during my meeting with President Maia Sandu, our projects aim to facilitate the Republic of Moldova’s accession and connection process to the European space.

We also addressed aspects of the Romanian investors’ presence in the Republic of Moldova’s economy. In this context, I underlined the importance of a business climate in line with European standards, a prerequisite for investment expansion. Romania will continue to support the development of the Republic of Moldova’s human capital by granting scholarships in universities across Romania, for all curricula and at all levels of education.

In today’s meeting, we agreed to identify those areas and sectors with potential, that offer opportunities for both sides so that we provide funding and we focus on these sectors to develop through bilateral contribution.

Universities from Romania are present in the Republic of Moldova with branches developed in partnership with higher education institutions from the Republic of Moldova, providing high-academic quality study programs.

I welcomed the openness of institutions from the Republic of Moldova, both central and local to strengthen our close ties. We can see solid demarches in Romania, through political support at all levels, vocal, sincere, and active to accelerate the Republic of Moldova’s integration into the European Union.

Through concrete assistance under the form of non-reimbursable financial aid, through the supply of electricity, heavy fuel oil, and other energy products, capitalization of the Iasi – Ungheni –Chisinau gas pipeline, transfer of expertise, and through any other forms of aid, as we agreed today.

We also see the same openness and sincere approach of the Republic of Moldova regarding the natural, deep ties between Bucharest and Chisinau. Your courageous measures aim at re-establishing the historical and scientific truth as well as at repairing injustices from the Soviet era, reconfirming the community of language, history, and culture between Romania and the Republic of Moldova as well as the depth of our spiritual ties.

We thank you once again for promulgating the law that recognizes Romanian as the official language of the Republic of Moldova.

The war in Ukraine, its major implications for the Republic of Moldova as well as the increasingly aggressive destabilization actions supported by Russia and hostile local interests, all of which call for close and constant coordination between our countries.

That's why I showed that Romania recently proposed at the European level a sanctions regime to counteract the actions to destabilize the Republic of Moldova. We continue the steps in this direction and we will work closely with the Government of Chisinau, with the member states of the European Union, and with the European institutions for the implementation of this objective.

The President of the Republic of Moldova, Mrs. Maia Sandu, presented almost a week ago, in the Chisinau Parliament, a clear and ambitious vision for reforming the state and joining the EU. The Republic of Moldova firmly embarked on the path of reforms and European integration to ensure better living standards for its citizens. You, Mr. Prime Minister, have a clear short-term objective, of fulfilling the recommendations of the European Commission and starting accession negotiations.

As we discussed, we will give our full support and share our entire expertise with you.

I say all this because it is not an easy path, but it is a necessary, beneficial effort and for which we strongly support you. All those who may doubt the rightness of this path have only to look at the example of Romania, at how much and deeply Romania has evolved in the context of integration into the European Union. All socio-economic indicators prove this. There is no other option that can offer the citizens of the Republic of Moldova access to freedom, stability, prosperity, and dignified living than integration into the European Union.

I saw, just the other day, how difficult it is to enact reform, for example in the field of justice. As we have discussed, we can observe that these obstacles are not at all easy to pass, but the important thing is that they neither prevent Madam president nor you from going ahead with these measures, as the citizens of the Republic of Moldova expect from you. As such, allow me to salute the courage and determination of the authorities to advance on this level. We know from our own experience that it is neither a simple road nor without challenges. However, I strongly believe in the political will of the Government you are leading, and in the ability of the colleagues from Chisinau to find sustainable and balanced solutions that will restore the justice system to the correct foundations, for the benefit of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova.

I will conclude by saying that the Republic of Moldova enjoys an unprecedented capital of sympathy at the European and international levels. It must be further capitalized to build a safer, more prosperous, and European Republic of Moldova. It must also be valued to turn the Republic of Moldova into a provider of stability in the region, in the interest of its citizens and the European Union as well.

Finally, Mr. Prime Minister, I want to publicly assure you once again of the full support of the Government of Romania for the fulfillment of the objectives you have assumed and I am sure that only through collaboration and openness to dialogue will we be able to support you in your demarches. Thank you!

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Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă met with the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Grosu

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă was received by the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Grosu, in the context of his official visit to Chisinau

During the meeting, the President of the Parliament, Igor Grosu, presented the legislative situation on the nine points of conditionality related to the process of opening negotiations for the accession to the European Union and thanked for the support given by the specialized committees of the Romanian Parliament.

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă expressed appreciation for the passing of the law granting the Romanian the status of official language in the Republic of Moldova and for the reparation of the consequences generated by the Soviet regime regarding the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia.

"Romania fully supports the European path of the Republic of Moldova, the state stability, and the security of its citizens. Last year, we demonstrated that by standing together we can overcome difficult moments. We want to do more than that, to strengthen the bridges between us and to develop economically together, thus ensuring prosperity for our citizens”, stated Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă.

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Prime Minister Nicolae –Ionel  Ciucă’s visit to the Cathedral of Saints Petru si Pavel in Chisinau

Prime Minister Nicolae –Ionel  Ciucă visited today the Cathedral of Saints Petru si Pavel (Peter and Paul) in Chisinau, which belongs to the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia.

The visit allowed for an extensive discussion on the situation of the Metropolitan Church after the restoration of its status and that of His Eminence Petru, Archbishop of Chisinau, Metropolitan of Bessarabia, and Exarch of the Territories. The problems of the clergy in Bessarabia and those of the proper functioning of the metropolitan church in a decent seat were assessed during the visit, which focused on the place of worship representative for the Bessarabian Romanians.

The Prime Minister congratulated the clergy and the parishioners for the work of almost 30 years in building the cathedral where the parish priest Petru Buburuz performs his work.

Prime Minister Nicolae –Ionel  Ciucă gave assurances of support for the completion of the work and the resolution of the last obstacles to repairing the consequences of the Soviet period.

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă is accompanied on his official visit to the Republic of Moldova by Minister of Defence Angel Tîlvăr, Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu, Minister of Digitalization Sebastian Burduja and Head of the Prime Minister's Chancellery Mircea Abrudean.