On 28 November 2022, the President of the Competition Council, Alexei GHERȚESCU and Olivier GUERSENT, Director General of the Directorate General for Competition (DG Comp) of the European Commission met in a bilateral meeting to discuss the alignment of EU best practices and policies in the field of competition and State aid and ways to implement them in the Republic of Moldova, as well as the assistance that can be provided by DG Comp for the institutional development of the Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova.

During the meeting, the parties addressed the main challenges of the Competition Council in order to achieve the commitments undertaken on the competition and State aid component both in the context of the Moldova-European Union Association Agreement, but especially those arising from the recognition of the European perspective of the Republic of Moldova and the granting of the candidate country status for accession to the European Union.

Thereby, the President of the Competition Council, Alexei GHERȚESCU presented the main strategic priorities set in the activity of the authority and described the challenges encountered in their implementation. In particular, the need to align the main and secondary legislation with the EU acquis was highlighted. In this context, the imperative of aligning, in the near future, all existing State aid schemes in the Free Economic Zones, which is a commitment of the Republic of Moldova under the Moldova-European Union Association Agreement, was addressed.

It was discussed the indispensability of strengthening the institutional capacities of the Competition Council, which is to be achieved along several lines such as: the implementation of a peer-review of the Competition Council, the restructuring of the authorities, the development and strengthening of the professional capacities of the employees of the Competition Council, which can be achieved both through technical assistance projects (e.g. TAIEX, Twinning, etc.), but also through the organisation of potential working visits/stays for Competition Council employees at EU competition authorities and institutions.

Therewith, the meeting addressed the need to provide the Competition Council with support in the form of expertise and advice from DG Comp experts in the field of making investigations more efficient, market studies carried out, implementation of leniency policies, advocacy actions, etc.

Summing up, the parties decided to strengthen cooperation relations between the two institutions in order to successfully implement the commitments undertaken by the Republic of Moldova in the context of its European course.

The Competition Council sincerely thanks the Head of the Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the EU, Ambassador Daniela MORARI, without whose support this meeting would not have taken place.