From January to December 2023, the country’s president, Maia Sandu, embarked on 21 official trips abroad. The sums listed in this article are in Moldavian Leu.
Whether for working visits, summits, or meetings with the international community, all these engagements amounted to half a million lei by the end of last year, according to data published on the Presidency’s page. Find out in the article below where and why the head of state traveled on these foreign visits, what expenses were incurred, and how they compare to previous years and to those of other officials. The working trips of President Sandu commenced in mid-January 2023, with one of the most expensive foreign visits – the World Economic Forum in Davos – setting the stage.
Over the course of 12 months, our country’s president made 21 trips abroad, which collectively incurred expenses of 526,800 lei from the budget of the Moldovan Presidential Office.
In addition to these, there were official trips abroad by the staff of the Presidential Office in 2023, which the head of state did not attend, totaling 41. In total, the Presidency spent 825,300 lei last year. It’s worth noting that the budget of the Presidential Office allocated 700,000 lei for official trips abroad in 2023.
According to data published on the Presidency’s page, the most significant expenses for these trips are attributed to flights – 251,900 lei, while the least are allocated for accommodation – 93,600 lei. In between are the costs for per diems, which amounted to a total of 181,000 lei in 2023.
From Kiev la Chicago, one of Maia Sandu’s routes
Most of these trips, 11 in number, were undertaken for the purpose of participating in an official working visit. Additionally, these were also the trips for which the most money was spent. The head of state traveled to Montreal, Chicago, The Hague, Lisbon, Warsaw, Prague, Kiev, Bern, Zurich, and three times to Bucharest.
Also in 2023, Maia Sandu participated in six Summits. Among these are the European Council Summit in Reykjavik, the Summit in Salzburg, at Bucea, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and the Summit of the European Political Community in Granada, Spain. Participation in these meetings ranged from zero expenses to over 67,000 lei.
The last category of visits undertaken by the country’s president is participation in international meetings on various topics, such as attending the coronation ceremony of King Charles III in London, which cost over 22,000 lei.
The list continues with participation in the Strategic Forum in Bled, Slovenia, as well as the working meeting of heads of state and government from Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans, in Greece. Maia Sandu also took part in the proceedings of the 59th edition of the Munich Security Conference, which incurred costs of 43,000 lei, and the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
We note that in all these trips, the head of state was accompanied by at least one presidential advisor. In some cases, the number of persons delegated for travel could reach three.
From free trips, to very expensive
On the axis of expenses generated by the president’s travels, the amounts range from zero lei to nearly 100,000 lei.
The most expensive official trip took place in January 2023 in Davos, Switzerland, for participation in the World Economic Forum. The total cost of this trip was 67,500 lei. Detailed breakdown includes 22,700 lei for per diems, 26,100 lei for accommodation, and 18,700 lei for air travel.
Also notable among high-cost trips is the working visit to Bern and Zurich in October 2023, which amounted to 58,300 lei. Slightly below this amount is the professional trip to Montreal, Canada – 55,600 lei.
In contrast, there are trips for which not a single lei was spent, and in 2023 there were two such journeys. These were the Summit at Bucea in March and participation in the working meeting of heads of state and government from Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans, in Greece.
Bucharest is the city where Maia Sandu has made the most repeated working visits, and the costs for these trips vary around 14,000 lei.
How big were the expenses?
In 2022, the expenses of the presidential administration for foreign visits amounted to 514,403 lei, representing less than half of the sum of 1,052,700 lei allocated from the Presidential budget at that time. However, compared to the costs recorded for trips in 2023, that amount is lower by 12,000 lei.
At the same time, the expenses for work-related trips abroad are lower compared to those of former President Igor Dodon. According to data published by the Center for Policies and Reforms, the budgetary allocations for Dodon’s travel expenses were 1,135,479 lei in 2017, 1,325,958 lei in 2018, and 257,000 lei in 2019, which are significantly lower than those of the current president.
Additionally, the Romanian investigative portal, Recorder, compared the travel costs of several European presidents attending the coronation of King Charles III, which took place from May 4-6. According to presidential representatives, the head of state traveled to London on a commercial flight selected from five offers, opting for the cheapest one. Other European heads of state also chose commercial flights, which, compared to the ticket purchased for Maia Sandu, were more expensive.
