The director of the National Anti-corruption Centre, Alexandr Pînzari, had a meeting, on Friday, with the European Union Global Facility Project team. The delegation's visit is part of the process of strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat money laundering and make the asset recovery mechanism more efficient.

During the meeting, a number of topics were addressed, including the possibilities of providing assistance from the Project in the segment of continuous training of the institution's employees, the exchange of best practices and data, but also the provision of assistance for cooperation with some jurisdictions in outside the country. Therefore, the NAC, as a point of contact, will mediate the discussions between the Project and other legal institutions in the Republic of Moldova on the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing.

We specify that, in March 2024, the NAC sent a letter to the EU Delegation requesting the inclusion of the Republic of Moldova in the list of beneficiary countries of the EU Global Facility Project to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The approach was accepted with the establishment of the following areas of interest: the recovery/management of criminal assets; investigating complex cases of corruption and money laundering; international cooperation in cases of corruption and money laundering and strengthening the capacities of anti-corruption officers in terms of prevention/combating money laundering standards.

It should be noted that in 2017, the European Commission established the EU Global Facility for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (GF-AML/CFT) as an operational tool in providing support based on the request of third countries in the context of deficiencies encountered in the process of combating money laundering.