Moldova Accession to the GPA
The Facility provided support at various stages, starting with accession negotiations and continuing along the way with the reforms necessary for successful GPA implementation and compliance.
Moldova Accession to the GPA: Supporting negotiations and reforms for GPA implementation.
The Republic of Moldova, a Member of the WTO since 2001, requested in 2014 technical assistance in the context of its GPA accession. The decision to become a Party to the Agreement was an important step towards further approximation with the EU in light of the Moldova–European Union Association Agreement committing Moldova to economic, judicial and financial reforms to converge its policies and legislation to those of the European Union.
First, with the assistance of the EBRD GPA TC Facility, Moldova received support during the negotiation stage, including enacting reforms of the government procurement legal framework to overcome regulatory non-compliance. Following the revision of several market access offers and visits to Geneva, at the beginning of 2015, the Republic of Moldova submitted its final offer. In 2016, the Committee accepted Moldova’s revised offer and on 14 July 2016, Moldova ratified the 2012 revised text of the GPA, becoming formally a Party.
Second, further assistance was provided by the Facility in facilitating the reform process necessary for the adequate implementation of the changes made to the legal, regulatory and institutional procurement framework, including a unified procurement regulation for Annex 3 entities under Moldova’s coverage offer in the GPA 2012 (entities operating in the utility sector and state-owned enterprises).
Third, the EBRD GPA TC Facility provided technical assistance to effectively implement an independent review and remedies body, a GPA mandatory requirement, and to provide tribunal skills training to relevant counsellors of the National Agency for the Settlement of Appeals (ANSC).
Fourth, with the support of EBRD, the law was amended to enable the full-scale e-procurement, resulting in the launch of MTender in October 2018. MTender digitalizes procurement from planning to signing the contract and was designed to be GPA compliant.
