Strengthening Moldova’s Capacity to Manage Labor Project launched

The first activities included in the Strengthening Moldova’s Capacity to Manage Labor and Return Migration Project will be carried out in June. The project is an initiative of the European Commission that forms part of the Mobility Partnership with the EU and is implemented by the Swedish Employment Agency, Info-Prim Neo reports. The major objectives of the project are to provide correct information about the migration procedures and opportunities and the risks of illegal migration, organize training sessions for those that want to go abroad and offer programs for the Moldovan migrants that return home. During an interview, project coordinator Vladimir Lungu said that besides the 3 million euros provided by the European Commission for implementing the activities included in the three-year project, Italy will allocate 250,000 euros for training a group of winemakers. These will be persons from Moldova and Moldovans that work in Italy, but want to return home and set up wine businesses. The training courses will be given mainly in Italy and will center on grape growing, processing technology, wine bottling and organization of sales. The Government of Cyprus will provide money to create a website about the employment opportunities for the Moldovans in this country. “After this website is devised, we will ask the Governments of other EU countries to create similar sites so that the Moldovans are informed from a primary source about the available jobs, employment possibilities and labor protection norms in the given countries,” Vladimir Lungu said. The first six training seminars for employees of local employment agencies will be taught in June. They will focus on the specific features of the labor markets and employment procedures in 12 EU member states that are partners of the Mobility Partnership. Another six seminars will take place in September. Moldova signed the Joint Statement on the Mobility Partnership with the EU in Luxemburg on June 5, 2008. The partner member states are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Sweden.