On 13 December 2018, the kick-off meeting on the EU Twinning Project "Enhancing the System of Prevention and Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in the Republic of Moldova", took place at the National Art Museum in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova.
The keynotes speeches were given by:
• Mr. Vasile Sarco, Director of the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering
• H.E. Mr. Kęstutis Kudzmanas, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania
• H.E. Mr. Bartłomiej Zdaniuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the Republic of Poland
• Dr. Marco Gemmer, Head of Operations Section, European Union Delegation
• Mr. Mindaugas Petrauskas, Deputy-Director, Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Lithuania
• Mrs. Elżbieta Franków-Jaśkiewicz, Head of International Cooperation Unit, Department of Financial Information, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland • Mr. Petru Moraru, Judge, Member of the Higher Council of Magistracy, Republic of Moldova
• Mr. Viorel Morari, Head, Anti-corruption Prosecutor's Office, Republic of Moldova
• Mr. Vladimir Munteanu, First Vice-governor, National Bank of Moldova
• Ms. Victoria Belous, Head of Legal Department, State Fiscal Service, Republic of Moldova
• Mr. Igoris Krzeckovskis, European Union High Level Adviser in the field of Anti-Money Laundering
The main message from the beneficiaries was that the Moldovan authorities have high expectations for this project and are ready for an active and fruitful cooperation with the EU experts.
The EU Twinning project is an EU funded joint project between the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering, Republic of Moldova; Lithuania, represented by the Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania (FCIS), Supreme Court of Lithuania and Prosecutor General's Office of the Republic of Lithuania; Poland, represented by the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland (MoF); Germany, represented by University for Public Administration in Bremen (HfÖV). The project is managed by the Central Project Management Agency (Lithuania).
The aim of the project, whose total budget is of 2,000,000 EUR is to provide support to the strengthening of the system for anti-money laundering in the Republic of Moldova. Within the next 36 months, experts from Lithuania, Poland and Germany will implement various measures, subdivided into seven different components, with the participation of Prosecutor's Office, General Police Inspectorate, the Tax and Customs Service, the National Bank and the courts.
