Romanian Foreign Affairs minister launched "Moldova friends group" in Brussels

The Romanian Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi launched in Brussels the European action of the Republic of Moldova or, in other words, the Republic of Moldova friends group. This took place during a working breakfast of the EU members Foreign Affairs ministers, the Foreign Affairs Council and the Informal support group, a Romanian Foreign Office communiqué (MAE) informs. Initially, Baconschi said he was relaying on the support of France and Spain in particular. The French support materialised with Pierre Lellouche, France’s state secretary for European Affairs, co-presided the event.

The chief of Moldavian Diplomacy Iurie Leanca was special guest. EU ministers, state secretaries and ambassadors also attended from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, Great Britain, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden and Hungary. „The initiative is open to all member states which are interested to support Republic of Moldova in its democratic and European pathway”, Romanian MAE informs.

Teodor Baconschi underlined in his speech the importance of the democratic changes in Chisinau and the capital need for the EU states to support Moldova in order to consolidate the rightful state and to ease the burden of the economic crisis. The debate brought ideas of materialising this support.

The initiative of launching in the EU of a group of friends of the Republic of Moldova is one pf the projects mentioned by the Romanian diplomacy chief during his hearings in Bucharest for his MAE mandate. The Republic of Moldova is a priority of Bucharest’s foreign affairs policy. President Traian Basescu will visit Chisinau this week. He said that Moldova was a project Romania was „very fond of” and indicated that the EU should take on a sustained effort of solving the Transnistrian. Basescu said that Romania will „rally actively inside the EU to include Chisinau in the region where, historically, it rightfully belongs”.