Romania’s Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu will co-chair today in Paris the third ministerial conference of the Moldova Support Platform, a permanent support tool created at the initiative of the foreign ministers of Romania, Germany and France in the spring of 2022 in order to mobilize financial contributions from the world community and to support reforms necessary for Moldova’s EU accession, according to Agerpres.

According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), Aurescu will co-chair this event together with the France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Also attending will be the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, and Moldova’s Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu.

The meeting in Paris takes place amid Moldova facing major energy, economic, humanitarian and resilience challenges against the backdrop of a brutal war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

Considering the seriousness of the crisis in the energy sector, with strong destabilising consequences on the national budget, the conference will focus particularly on energy emergency assistance to Moldova.

Aurescu is said to highlight the fact that Moldova’s main current necessity is to get from its international partners the necessary financial assistance for gas and electricity purchases.

The head of the Romanian diplomacy will inform about assistance measures undertaken by Romania, such public grants worth EUR 10 million, a quick reaction to facilitate substantial deliveries of electricity from October 14, 2022, and initiating the implementation of an agreement on non-refundable financial assistance worth EUR 100 million to Moldova.

He is also expected to highlight that the Moldova Support Platform remains at the centre of international efforts aimed at providing assistance to Moldova for building a stable, prosperous and resilient democracy.

The organisation of the third ministerial conference in Paris within seven months of the creation and releaseof the Moldova Support Platform is said to be a clear signal of the consolidation of this new format as an instrument for the coalescence of multidimensional international support and the confirmation of its role in a difficult period in which Moldova needs the assistance of the world community more than ever before.

The co-chairs of the six working groups of the platform will present in Paris the conclusions of the activity carried out prior to the event in the following sectors: the humanitarian situation of refugees from Ukraine (working group co-chaired by Germany and Canada); combatting corruption (co-chaired by Romania – through the Ministry of Justice – and the UK); energy security (co-chaired by France and Italy); financial assistance (chaired by the European Commission); border management (chaired by the US), and reform of public administration and public finance administration (co-chaired by the Netherlands and Sweden) – a working group set up at Aurescu’s initiative at the ministerial conference in Bucharest.

Agerpres