In a vote on Thursday, members of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and Budgets approved the Reform and Growth Facility for Moldova with 74 votes in favour, 21 against and 1 abstention. The mandate for interinstitutional negotiations has been approved with 69 votes in favour, 21 against and 3 abstentions. Between 2025 and 2027, the maximum resources made available to Moldova through the Facility will amount to €1.785 billion (in current prices). This includes up to €1.5 billion in concessional loans and €285 million in non-repayable financial support. Additionally, €135 million will be set aside to provision the loans.

• The committees strengthened provisions to ensure inclusive partnerships in Moldova. The facility should require consultation with Moldova’s Parliament, local authorities, social partners, and civil society during program design and implementation.
• Additionally, MEPs enhanced parliamentary oversight and scrutiny by adding a new article obliging the Commission to report regularly to Parliament on fund disbursement, implementation, and reform progress. Civil society should be enabled to directly report irregularities concerning funding or final beneficiaries to the Commission.
• Also, a regular dialogue between the European Parliament and the Commission, at least once a year, should monitor implementation, on top of ad-hoc meetings responding to sudden developments in the country.
• Moldova must maintain detailed records on project implementation, financial data, and final recipients in an interoperable system accessible to EU authorities.
• The Reform Agenda should be developed in consultation with stakeholders and must align with EU accession requirements. Disbursement of funds is conditional on measurable progress in reforms.

MEPs demand key financial adjustments to better address Moldova’s needs:

• Improved balance between loans and grants: MEPs propose increasing the share of non-repayable grants from 16% to 23.5%, providing Moldova with €420 million in direct financial support. This adjustment is made possible by reallocating the €135 million required for loan provisioning to the NDICI-Global Europe „Emerging Challenges and Priorities Cushion.”
• Higher pre-financing rate: Moldova should access up to 20% of the total funding as pre-financing, up from the originally proposed 7%. This ensures quicker access to funds for urgent reforms.
• Make available additional voluntary contributions in the form of external assigned revenue from Member States, third countries, or international financing organisations for further financial support to Moldova.

MEPs also insist that the Facility shall not support activities or measures which undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova.