The second session of technical assistance provided by the Competition Council of Romania was held in Chisinau between 18-22 September, in order to implement the measures proposed by the European Commission in its Opinion on the application for accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union and to align the national legislation with the EU acquis.

The purpose of the event was to provide assistance and legal expertise for the preparation of the screening of the regulatory acts in the field of State aid, being addressed and discussed topics such as: the expertise of the Competition Council of Romania to the reporting forms of State aid and de minimis aid from the Republic of Moldova; the implementation of the provisions of the Regulation on State Aid for Research, Development and Innovation, the Regulation on aid for rescue of beneficiaries in difficulty and the Regulation on State Aid for Research, Development and Innovation.

Therewith, both the comprehensive agenda of the event and the openness shown by the experts of the competition authority of Romania contributed to extensive question/answer sessions, where the participants of the event were engaged in the debate of sensitive topics of interest, problems and challenges. The following were discussed: the experience of the Competition Council of Romania on the use of benchmarking (comparative test) when assessing State aid, ex-post analysis of authorised State aid, discussions on State aid granted for infrastructure (road, railway, maritime and airport) and best practices in granting de minimis aid. A major topic of interest was the presentation of the State Aid Register (REGAS).

The technical assistance project, whose beneficiary is the Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova, includes a series of events, during which the employees of the institution will benefit from advice for the harmonization of sectorial regulations with competition law, strengthening of institutional capacities for effective enforcement of competition and State aid rules, technical support to improve the skills and efficiency of the administrative apparatus.