Chisinau, October 23, 2023 – The Regional Anti-Corruption Initiative (RAI) Secretariat initiated and coordinated the Republic of Moldova’s signing of the International Treaty on Exchange of Data for the Verification of Asset Declarations, which took place on 23 October 2023 in Chisinau, hosted and organized at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova.

By this act, the Republic of Moldova has joined the first signatories of the Treaty, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia demonstrating the essential commitment to the fight against corruption and to strengthening cooperation in the Southeast Europe (SEE) region.

Minister of Justice of the Republic of the Republic Moldova, Ms. Veronica Mihailov-Moraru said that signing this Treaty on behalf of the Republic of Moldova presents great honor. Fighting against corruption is one of the priorities of the Moldovan Government which is committed to providing all the tools and mechanisms to strengthen institutional capacities in preventing and investigating corruption. The signing of this Treaty is one of the useful steps to provide national stakeholders with all the mechanisms to ensure that the highest standards of ethics and integrity are in place. The desire is to create the efficient system to check the asset declarations where it will be possible to check data nationally and regionally. This signature on the Treaty shows Moldova’s commitment to the EU accession process and its willingness to strengthen the regional cooperation ties.

Ms. Laura Stefan, RAI Chairperson, expressed pleasure in having the Republic of Moldova sign the International Treaty on the exchange of data to verify the content of the property records of public officials.

“By the act of signing this agreement, the delegations of the Republic of Moldova as well as previously Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and the Republic of Serbia are providing the essential commitment of their countries in the fight against corruption and strengthening cooperation in the region. The main purpose of the Treaty is the prevention and suppression of corruption through the strengthening of interstate cooperation and enabling the direct administrative exchange of data between the signatories of the Agreement” Ms. Stefan said.

She emphasized that the Treaty in the best way reflects the RAI’s efforts in providing support in the field of prevention and fighting corruption in the SEE region – by building national capacities, supporting the strengthening of legal frameworks, providing training on specific anti-corruption tools, and mainly enhancing and fostering regional cooperation.

Ms. Desislava Gotskova, Head of RAI Secretariat, congratulated Moldova for signing the Treaty. “I hope that this Treaty will soon come into force and new countries will join and thus it will become a widely recognized tool for cooperation in the field of data exchange of asset declarations in the region and beyond” she stated and referred to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and its Resolution 6/4 from 2015 as the basis of the International Treaty.

She expressed thanks to the Austrian Government, in particular the Austrian Development Agency, that has recognized the importance of the Treaty and continues to support RAI in this endeavor underlining that RAI Secretariat remains fully committed to assisting countries in transposing the Treaty into the national legal order and support the implementation of Treaty provisions.

Ms. Bojana Šćepanović, State Secretary of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia, also congratulated the host country for its decision to join the Treaty. “I proudly emphasize that the Republic of Serbia is the depositary of this important document. Our dedication to the fight against corruption is constant, and it must not end. That’s why we continuously seek for new ways and solutions”, she noted.

The signing ceremony was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Justice Moldova, the National Integrity Authority of Moldova, the National Anticorruption Center of Moldova, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Moldova, as well as the representatives of RAI member countries from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine in the role of observer country.

The event was organized under auspices of the Regional Programme Southeast Europe-Together against Corruption (SEE-TAC) with the financial support of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

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