Moldova continues to stay leader among the Eastern Partnership countries in terms of rapprochement with the European Union’s standards, according to the Eastern Partnership Index Report 2015-2016, unveiled in Brussels.
Under the document, the performances of the countries signatory to the Association Agreements with EU are measured based on the achievements from two groups of indexes: Relations and Rapprochement. Thus, Moldova has a score of 0.68 points at the first category and 0.73 points at the second one and exceeds such countries as Georgia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
The report shows that Moldova is leader also in terms of Deep and Sustainable Democracy and Equality and Anti-discrimination Policies. Moldova got a positive score also in the sectors of elections, mass media freedom, human rights, justice independence, public administration’s quality and fighting corruption.
At the same time, the document reads about the worsening of the relations between EU and Moldova in the wake of the bank fraud, as well as about their improvement following the swearing in office of the Filip Government, which is to ensure the implementation of the association agenda with EU for 2017-2019.
The report also reads that the European Union is to increase the support provided to Moldova for economic and social projects. Also, a priority remains the efforts to depoliticize and strengthen the state’s institutions.
The Eastern Partnership Index was made based on an analysis carried out by a group of experts from EU and EaP countries on the period March 2015 – December 2016.