Friday, June 20, 2014, the Minister of Environment, Valentina Țapiș, chaired the meeting of the "Strengthening capacities to undertake Environmental Fiscal Reform to meet national and global environmental priorities" Project. The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Finance, subordinated institutions, as well as the UNDP. 

During the meeting there was discussed and analyzed the activity report for the first semester of 2014. Special attention was paid to the reform of the policy in the area of subsidies damaging the environment, reform of environmental taxes, and facilitation of investments in eco-technologies, as well as improvement of NEF and LEF management and operation. 

The UNDP/GEF Project "Environmental Fiscal Reform in the Republic of Moldova" (EFR) started in 2012, and the general plan of project activities was approved in June 2012. During 2012-2013, activities were planned taking into account the gradual approach focused, first of all tackling the first component of the project: Reform of subsidies damaging the environment, green subsidies and environmental taxes, with a specific focus on agriculture and energy. The initial delay in the implementation of the project was due mainly to the difficulty of recruiting a qualified team for managing the project, a process organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment. As there is no specialized expertise in the area of environmental fiscal reform in the country, this is a challenge not only for this study, but also for the entire implementation of the project. The extension of the launch of the project, as well as the longer preparing period for the project interventions are due to the complexity and sensitivity of the EFR aspects, as well as the difficulties of the Ministry of Environment to guide and lea this context. In 2013, there was assessed the experience and efficiency of the Project Management Unit, from the perspective of substantial and managerial advancement in project implementation needing significant improvement. In September 2013 the contract with the ex-Manager of the Project was cancelled, and starting in December 2013, new managerial measures were enforced, and the implementation of the project was re-launched with maximum power.