In 2022, we launched the European Village National Program and invested almost 1.8 billion lei (90 million euros) in 906 localities. Authorities used this money to improve living conditions in our villages and towns. The Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development (MIDR), Andrei Spinu, announced this today at a press conference.
“The “European Village” program demonstrates that together – the central administration, with the financial support of partner countries from the European Union and the perseverance of local administration – we manage to transform locality by locality and thus modernize the whole of Moldova. In the last three years, we have renovated 90 kindergartens, 20 nursery groups, 84 high schools and gymnasiums, and 99 cultural houses in various regions. We have managed to renovate or build 750 km of water supply systems, 135 km of sewage networks, and about 610 km of street lighting networks,” the official estimated.
According to the minister, 748 applications have been submitted to the National Program “European Village,” 2024 edition. 80% of town halls from all over the country participated with one project each. The European Village, edition 2024, is even more successful than the first edition, as demonstrated by all the mayors who applied to this call.
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According to Andrei Spinu, most projects (42%) submitted by authorities were for water supply and sanitation. More than 20% of the submitted files provide energy efficiency works, 15% – for modernization of sports infrastructure, and 9% – for renovation of cultural houses and monuments.
After the submission stage, two evaluation stages followed: the administrative evaluation carried out by the National Office for Regional and Local Development, with the procedures set out in the Program Regulation. The projects were also evaluated from a technical and financial point of view, according to several criteria, including the timeliness and importance of the project, its compliance with national, sectoral, regional, and local development strategies, impact on beneficiaries, etc.
In another development, the MIDR chief refuted rumors that the state does not have sufficient resources for the program. “These are falsehoods. There is money for all the planned investments. On the contrary, we want to invest even more,” he said.
President Maia Sandu launched the “European Village” program in 2022 to finance initiatives for the development of localities. According to the head of state, the investments in the development of localities and national infrastructure made during this mandate are the biggest since independence. The EU accession will allow us to modernize more localities faster so that every Moldovan family can have good living conditions.