Moldova’s new government has taken the oath of office before President Maia Sandu, with accelerating the country’s European Union accession bid set as its central task. The ceremony took place at the Presidency in Chișinău on July 22 in the presence of parliament speaker Igor Grosu.
Sandu told the incoming cabinet its agenda was clear and urged ministers to bring Moldova fully into line with European standards. “We must reach important milestones in the process of European integration,” she said.
The head of State also listed economic development, improving the business environment, management of public property, the absorption of European funds and strengthening national security among the government’s tasks.
Prime Minister Vasile Tofan, 44, won parliament’s confidence the previous evening by 53 votes to 21, with 21 abstentions in the 101-seat legislature. His governing programme is titled European Economy, Efficient State.
“It is by this commitment that we ask to be judged,” Tofan told MPs when presenting it. He set out five priorities: relaunching economic growth, accelerating EU accession, making the State more efficient and accountable, strengthening security and justice, and improving living standards.
He also named agriculture, the modernisation of infrastructure and a more secure and resilient energy sector as areas requiring attention.
Tofan is a political newcomer with no previous experience in government and no party affiliation. Until this month he was a senior partner at Horizon Capital, a Kyiv-based private equity firm with holdings in Moldova and Ukraine, and he holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
He replaces Alexandru Munteanu, who resigned on July 3 after eight months in office, saying he could no longer carry out his mandate in line with his convictions. His departure followed reports of inflated salaries at State-owned companies, among them the air navigation agency MoldATSA.
Most ministers from the outgoing administration have been retained, with changes at finance, health, culture and agriculture.
Moldova applied for EU membership in March 2022 and was granted candidate status three months later. It opened the first cluster of accession negotiations, covering the fundamentals, on June 15 after Hungary lifted the veto that had held up Ukraine’s talks and, with them, Chișinău’s, followed by the external relations cluster on July 14.
Tofan’s roadmap sets the signing of an accession treaty by the end of 2028 and readiness to join the bloc by 2030.
