Bucharest
Ion ȘTEFANOVICI, CAPDR: “The 2028–2034 EU budget, amounting to €2,000 billion, is being shaped now. The needs of the Moldova Region stem from the Multiannual Programming Document presented at FERM 2025”
The Future Starts Now: EU Budget 2028–2035 and the Strategic Opportunity for the Moldova Region
There are moments in history when there is no more time to “wait and see what happens.” The European Union is currently preparing the Multiannual Financial Framework 2028–2034, which will, in reality, cover a period of over 7 years, decisively shaping the direction of regional development at least until 2035. It is a historic budget, estimated at €2,000 billion, whose final form will be negotiated over the next two years.
For the Moldova Region, this budgetary framework is essential. Not only because we rely on European funds — but because the strategic vision MOLDOVA 2030, carefully built in partnership with Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and Ukraine, cannot be achieved without fair and targeted access to EU resources.
If you don’t plan your future, someone else will plan it for you. And sometimes, the cost is a lost generation.
What the European Commission Proposes
- €865 billion for national and regional partnerships (merging CAP + Cohesion)
- €410 billion for competitiveness and strategic technologies
- €131 billion for defense and space
- €200 billion for enlargement, cooperation, and external aid (“Global Europe”)
- €400 billion – crisis fund for unforeseen situations
- €88.9 billion for Ukraine (off-budget fund, but connected to the MFF)
- 35% of the budget for climate and biodiversity (≈€700 billion)
- Proposed own resources: taxes on large corporations, tobacco, electronic waste, and carbon emissions
What We Risk
The merger of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with cohesion funds into a single “super-fund” risks creating dangerous competition between farmers and hospitals, between villages and cities, between schools and highways. For Moldova, where these areas overlap both geographically and socially, the result could be a systemic loss of opportunity.
If in a Moldovan village the agricultural subsidy disappears, but no road, school, or clinic appears — it means we’ve lost everything, even if the EU budget has increased.
What We’ve Already Done – and the Way Forward
During the Moldova Regional Economic Forum – FERM 2025, held in Vatra Dornei, over 600 participants from the 6 counties of Moldova, from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, outlined clear directions on the proposed budget pillars:
- Agriculture and Cohesion (Panel 9): short supply chains, mountain economy, smart irrigation, local industries
- Competitiveness (Panel 1): digitalization, SMEs, relationship with China, reindustrialization
- Defense and Infrastructure (Panel 4): dual-use connectivity, A7 motorway, airports, border logistics
- Energy (Panel 5): cross-border interconnection, green transition, local grids
- Enlargement and Cooperation (Panel 11): partnerships with authorities from the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine
- Health and Crises (Panel 6): lack of medical infrastructure in mountainous and rural areas
- Tourism and Culture (Panels 7 and 10): Via Moldavia, heritage, creative industries, regional rebranding
What We Request as a Region
- Keeping CAP and Cohesion Policy separate
- Dedicated allocations for the Moldova Region – in agriculture, digital, tourism, energy, and culture
- Inclusion of regions in National Partnership Plans, not just governments
- Permanent representation of the Moldova Region in Brussels
- Recognition of Moldova as a strategic border zone, in the context of EU enlargement
Europe is built capital by capital. But European cohesion is won community by community.
We have committed to the MOLDOVA 2030 direction. We are not waiting for miracles — but we demand the right tools. Europe cannot become more united by sacrificing the very regions most in need of support.
We move forward — not with words, but with documents.
In the immediate future, Ion Ștefanovici, as President of CAPDR, will submit the following to:
- The European Commission
- Romanian Members of the European Parliament
- The Government of Romania
- The Ministry of Investments and European Projects
- North-East RDA
The Multiannual Programming Document for the Moldova Region 2025–2030, accompanied by the Official Position on the MFF 2028–2034. This is a proactive, strategic step to align our region’s needs with the structure of the future European budget.
Criticism without involvement is a form of cowardice. In the Moldova Region, we build — we don’t just comment. And building starts with commitment, data, documents, and clear steps.
