Moldova Growth Plan

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the European Commission’s initiative and the European Parliament’s report on the Moldova Growth Plan (hereafter ‘the Plan’) – the largest financial support package the EU has ever granted to Moldova;
• underscores the need to engage the social partners, civil society organisations, the expert community, academia and local public authorities in the development, monitoring and implementation of the reform agenda, as well as in the formulation and monitoring of specific indicators and intermediate indicators to measure progress. The important part is the involvement of organised civil society representatives in developing the Plan’s scoreboard and independent monitoring of the implementation of the reform agenda;
• recommends that funding be allocated from the grant component of the Growth Plan to support the activity of CSOs that contribute to the implementation of the Plan;
• recommends two conceptual adjustments to the parameters of this support:
  • increasing the share of grants from the current proportion of 16% to 35%, followed by a proportional decrease in the share of concessional loans;
  • increasing the minimum share of the total loan amount to be allocated to investments from 25% to 35%;
• endorses the three pillars of the Plan as they will accelerate the country’s economic and legal convergence with EU standards, while points out other aspects to take into account in implementing the Plan: environment, digitalisation, social investments, decentralisation and local autonomy, respect of EU quality and food safety standards etc.
• emphasises the need to improve the efficiency of Moldovan state-owned enterprises;
• recommends that at least 20% of all investments is directed towards local and regional development thus ensuring balanced and sustainable development across the entire country;
• insists that human rights issues, including a gender balance, inclusion of people with disabilities and ‘no one left behind’ principles, should be considered horizontal priorities in all the projects implemented under the Plan;
• considers that the proper funding should be provided for setting-up of an economic and social committee in the Republic of Moldova.