On November 28, in Chișinău, the EUROSFAT FORUM 2023 took place under the theme “The European Union and New Horizons.” The event provided a unique platform for open dialogue involving Belgium, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova—an exercise for the public, private sector, civil society, and pro-European academic community to define strategic directions for Moldova’s European integration. Key topics for achieving the necessary reforms for accession, preservation, and deepening of European values were discussed during the debates. The event was attended by Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov, Minister of Environment.
Among the event’s organizers were Europuls – the Center for European Expertise, Expert-Grup, the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, Promo-LEX, Institutum Virtutes Civilis, as well as the Soros Moldova Foundation and the “Friedrich Ebert” Foundation—the funders of the Forum.
Participants in the event referred to the progress made by the Republic of Moldova over a year since receiving the status of a candidate country for EU accession, the level of fulfillment of the nine recommendations of the European Commission, prospects for opening accession negotiations, regional cooperation with EU member states in view of Moldova’s accession to the EU, and other related topics.
In the panel dedicated to environmental and energy issues, titled “The Road to Sustainability: The Future of Moldova’s Environment and Energy System,” speakers discussed the path to energy security and efficiency, reforming environmental tax systems, balancing economic and environmental objectives, and implementing the extended producer responsibility (REP) mechanism. “The EU provides successful models for environmental protection, and all we have to do is implement them,” mentioned the Minister of Environment, Iordanca-Rodica Iordanov.
The official emphasized that the Ministry of Environment does not aim to collect as many taxes and accumulate payments in the budget; the real goal is to reduce the incentive to pollute, conserve existing natural resources, and invest in environmentally friendly technologies.
The topic was also addressed by Constantin Borosan, State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Jose Luis Gomez Pascual, President of Premier Energy, Alexandru Săndulescu, Senior Adviser to the European Union on Energy, and others.
FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS, FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!
For 10 years, the EUROSFAT Forum has been a successful model for connecting Romanian citizens with the European agenda, serving as a platform for debates among decision-makers at the European, national, and local levels, representatives of civil society, the business environment, and the academic community. The results of the EUROSFAT Forum have been recognized at the European level, with Europuls being named the national winner of the Charlemagne Prize for Young Europeans for the EUROSFAT 2022 Forum, the best project promoting the European agenda. This is the model that Europuls is implementing for the first time in 2023, in the Republic of Moldova, together with the Soros Moldova Foundation, following successful editions in Romania.