Moldovan President Maia Sandu stated on Monday (April 29) that the EU should develop an “equivalent” version of the US Marshall Plan from World War II to finance development projects in Moldova and Ukraine, according to Euractiv.
“Just as Western Europe was offered an economic lifeline after the Second World War by the American Marshall Plan, Moldova and Ukraine need a tightly focused 21st-century equivalent from the European Union.”
Signed by then-US President Harry Truman in 1948, the Marshall Plan, named after then-Secretary of State George Marshall, provided billions of dollars in economic aid to European countries devastated by World War II.
Moldova, which received the green light along with Ukraine last year to begin EU accession talks, has the second highest GDP per capita in Europe.
The Marshall Plan was designed to show to an exhausted continent that capitalism and democracy were a better way forward than anything offered by Communism. Today’s modern version will also need to offer similar hope to those of us working our way towards EU membership.
In February this year, the United Nations estimated that rebuilding Ukraine would cost $486 billion over the next decade, $75 billion more than projected in 2023.
Sandu stressed that the bloc’s budget should not only fund critical green, digital and infrastructure projects, but should also focus on “protecting values” threatened by “forces with a dark vision” for Europe.
Budgets were about the nuts and bolts of economic and social progress, how we should invest in education, technology, the green transition and many other important needs. We still need to do all of that – but we also need to invest in saving lives, bringing back peace, and defending liberty at key moments in history.
