Moldova to stop paying membership fees to CIS and its institutions - Finance Ministry

CHISINAU. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Moldova will stop paying membership fees to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and other organizations on its platform, the Finance Ministry said, noting that such a proposal is part of the draft budget for 2024 that it is currently being drawn up.

"The government will remove the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from the list of organizations which annual membership fees will be paid to. The decision will be made in view of the fact that Moldova has terminated a number of documents on its participation in organizations set up on the CIS platform, as well as in view of the banking sanctions imposed by the international community on Russia," it said.

The bill reduces the sum originally earmarked for paying annual membership fees to international organizations in 2023 by 16 million lei (the equivalent of about $900,000), from 66.5 million lei to 50.5 million lei.

"The expenditures have been reduced in no small part due to the fact that Moldova will not pay fees for its membership of the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and seven organizations of this community totaling nearly 8.2 million lei (about $450,000) already in 2023. This sum was originally provided for in the 2023 budget," the ministry said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu said in February 2023 that Moldova was beginning its withdrawal from dozens of CIS agreements. He said the country was a signatory to about 330 CIS agreements, and many of them required revision. The Moldovan parliament passed a final resolution on the country's withdrawal from an agreement on founding the CIS's Mir television and radio company in May. Moldova also withdrew from a convention on the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly in July.

The Moldovan parliament terminated over 20 agreements signed as part of the CIS during the last spring-and-summer session and another 13 such agreements in September.