On June 11, 2015, the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union in cooperation with the European Commission organized in Luxembourg the first Eastern Partnership Ministerial Meeting on Digital Economy.

The meeting was co-chaired by the Minister of Transport of Latvia Mr Anrijs Matīss, and the Commission’s Vice President Andrus Ansip.

The EU Ministers responsible for Digital Economy and their representatives met their Armenian, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgian, Moldovan and Ukrainian counterparts to discuss challenges and opportunities of the further development of the Digital Economy.

The topics handled during this meeting included: the need to harmonize the Legislation of the Republic of Moldova in compliance with EU Directives; the success in use of frequencies under a technological neutrality and the strengthening of the data transfer speed through fixed and mobile internet networks, as well as the number of citizens accessing the broadband internet.

In the same context the proposals on the reduction of roaming tariffs between the Eastern Partnership and the European Union countries, cybersecurity aspects, as well as the need of widening the spectrum of public services rendered electronically were discussed.

In the same context the proposals on the reduction of roaming tariffs between the Eastern Partnership and the European Union countries, cybersecurity aspects, as well as the need of widening the spectrum of public services rendered electronically were discussed.

The European Commission’s Vice President Andrus Ansip underlined the enormous potential of the common digital market and encouraged the countries of the Eastern Partnership to promote intensively the participation of the local companies at the Union’s digital market.

Within the meeting the Ministerial Declaration on the Digital Economy was adopted, which represents the basis for regulating and developing the digital economies through deepening the bilateral and multilateral relations.

The delegation of the Republic of Moldova at the meeting consisted of Dumitru Parfentiev, the Deputy Minister of Information Technology and Communications, representatives of MITC, ANRCETI, academia and other interested parties.