The EU is offering emergency loans of €3 billion to ten neighbouring countries as part of its global response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Loans known as macro-financial assistance (MFA) are offered at very favorable conditions and low interest rates. The aim of the ’ is to help countries that are geographically, economically and politically close to the EU’ to limit the economic impact of the crisis.
Why is the EU lending money to its neighbours?
Oliver Varhelyi, EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement at AB’, says the European ’ will never be a safe and prosperous place until the neighborhood is also safe and prosperous. The safe meaning of getting rid of the “COVID crisis and the prosperous meaning of getting rid of the economic repercussions created by the COVID crisis, ” underlines.
Varhelyi euronews’e said it was in Europe's interest to secure the interests of its neighbors. He explains that “ means that ’ will have predictable business environment investment opportunities ” for companies and ’ will have more shopping “ with these countries. All this, he says, will contribute to the overall stability and security of the region.
Moldova is one of the countries that will benefit from –
The average monthly income in Moldova’ is 350 Euro’, and a quarter of the workforce has migrated to other countries to work. The EU has provided macro-financial assistance to Chisinau ’e twice before since 2010’.
Moldova’ya was awarded €100 million as MFA assistance to help fight the pandemic. November 2020In ’ received the first installment amounting to 50 million Euros. This much-needed financial support, especially from Moldova, will help ’'s agriculture-based economy.
MoldovaAgrarian crisis of ’
Farmers here have suffered not only from the crisis, but also from the drought that began in 2020’. Agriculture in the country from January to September 2020, according to BalkanInsight’ %It decreased by 25.3%, which was a loss of about 1 billion Euro’.
Ana Pancrat of ’, Union of Dairy Farmers of Moldova, says that due to the pandemic, farmers cannot get the nutrients they need from abroad. Due to the fact that the shops were closed, they could not get all the supplies they needed for their farm. Since farmers couldn't start over, “people decided it was necessary to slaughter their cows for their reliability, ” adds.
Charities are taking action to help some rural areas of Moldova’, but this is not an easy task.
According to Moldovan Red Cross National Coordinator Daniela Sevciuc, “'s list of people in absolute poverty has grown, so as the list has grown, it has become difficult for the state to support them all, ” says.
Despite being one of the poorest countries in Europe, Moldova had a growth rate of 3.6 percent before the pandemic, while unemployment remained stable at 5.1 percent. This government was about to launch a public infrastructure construction program, but it has now been suspended.
The country's newly elected president Maia Sandu told us that the “economy desperately needs this help. Moldovan businesses were not supported at all last year. There is no money in the current budget to support the economy, says ”. He explains that this will lead to job loss, lost incomes and increased poverty.
Meet MFA requirements
To receive the money, countries need to enroll in a funding program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), meet conditions for respect for human rights, implement democratic, economic and governance reforms, and press against corruption.
Moldova’ must meet these requirements in order to benefit from the second MFA installment of €50 million.
The conditions for the Moldovan president are welcomed. euronews’e “ said they want to know that the people have met their demands for good governance, that the money provided by the ” and “AB taxpayers to the Moldovans has reached the Moldovans, that it has helped the Moldovans, and that it has not been misused by some corrupt people, including parliament or other government agencies” said.
Dumitru Pîntea, an economist at Expert Grup’ta, one of the organizations responsible for monitoring MFA conditions, says he is pessimistic that MFA conditions will be met over time. “Moldova’ does not currently have a full-fledged government capable of implementing reforms, and at the same time the government does not have parliamentary support. The majority of lawmakers say ” opposes reforms and these contingencies.
EU Commissioner Várhelyi said Moldova is confident ’ can implement the conditions of economic reform to receive its second fiscal installment. He met President Sandu and believes in his devotion.
It is not in AB“'s interest to pursue these goals, these goals that we have set for us together with ’Moldova; It is in the interest of the Moldovan people to carry out all these reforms because it will make their judicial system, their economic system, much more resilient and capable of recovering much more easily from the Covid crisis, says ”.
