On December 16, 2020, the draft law on the Local Action Groups was voted by the Government of the Republic of Moldova. It provides for the creation of the legal framework on the activity of Local Action Groups (LAGs) as legal entities and will regulate the establishment, activity, reorganization and liquidation of the Local Action Groups.

The draft law was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment in partnership with the National LEADER Network of the Republic of Moldova and Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova; and the next stage provides for its approval by the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.

At the Government meeting, the Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Ion PERJU presented the draft law, stating that it is a solution for registering and regulating the activity of the Local Action Groups, which is the mechanism of LEADER approach implementation in Moldova and that the LEADER State program will be financed from public sources with a value of up to 5% of the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment. While developing this draft law, the  Ministry (MADRM) was guided by the existing practice of creating and functioning of the LAGs, collaborating with organizations that facilitated the creation, development and financing of the LAGs in the Republic of Moldova.

This step will facilitate the complex process of including the LEADER Program on the list of programs supported by the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment and will contribute to the development of rural areas in the country.

Over the years, Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova supported the creation, financing and capacity building of rural communities through the LEADER Approach and maintained a continuous dialogue with state institutions to promote the LEADER instrument.

The President of the National LEADER Network in the Republic of Moldova Marina Albu stated that this step is very important for the development of rural areas in the Republic of Moldova.  “The registration and institutionalization of the LAGs will allow for more opportunities for rural development.  The greatest value of the LEADER approach in the Republic of Moldova are the people who believe in this mechanism and work enthusiastically for the development of the region they live in. Together with our team and partners, we are very pleased that the Republic of Moldova became the first country outside the EU to implement the publicly-funded LEADER Program.  Starting with today, the Local Action Groups, the National LEADER Network of the Republic of Moldova, Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova and other partners involved will work even harder to demonstrate that the trust given by the state and development partners has been and is justified”.

In this context, the country director Solidarity Fund PL in Moldova, Tomasz Horbowski stressed that the approval of the draft law on Local Action Groups is the result of the cooperation of all partners involved in the implementation of the LEADER Approach in the Republic of Moldova – Local  Action Groups, LAG managers, LAG members and local partners who successfully completed the projects co-financed by the LAGs. “This was possible thanks to the development partners that put their trust in the LEADER approach and the people who are involved in local development processes on a daily basis.  We are an entire team that contributed to this success, and in the future, we will make even more effort to generate concrete and tangible results in terms of the development of rural areas in the Republic of Moldova”, said Thomas Harbowski.

The LEADER initiative in the Republic of Moldova directly contributes to the economic and social development of rural areas. Currently, there are 32 LAGs in the country, covering about 35% of rural areas.