Moldova moves to slash red tape across industries under growth plan

The Moldovan government drafted a sweeping deregulation package to abolish redundant business permits across multiple sectors, aligning administrative procedures with European Union standards under its national economic growth plan.

The initiative follows a comprehensive review of more than 300 laws and cabinet decisions that identified obsolete and duplicated administrative requirements. Officials emphasized that reducing red tape will lower compliance costs for commercial enterprises while fully preserving mandatory public health, environmental, and consumer safety protections.

Easing fire safety and retail rules

Under the proposed changes, authorities will repeal a resolution requiring specialized fire safety clearances for several commercial activities. Officials noted that existing mechanisms, including on-site state inspections and mandatory fire safety declarations, provide sufficient operational oversight.

For pharmacies, the draft eliminates the requirement to maintain a separate administrative office for the branch manager, lowering fixed overhead and optimizing space usage. While pharmacies must generally operate on ground floors, new exemptions will permit locations inside medical facilities, shopping malls, train stations, and airports with internal access.

Shift to notification for waste and water

Healthcare facilities managing medical waste will no longer require advance coordination of their waste management plans from sanitary and environmental authorities. Institutional directors will independently approve five-year plans and submit them directly to the National Public Health Agency (ANSP) and the Environmental Protection Inspectorate before implementation.

A parallel simplification applies to natural mineral and spring water bottlers using activated alumina to remove fluorides. Producers will submit their monitoring programs alongside a 90-day prior treatment notification to ANSP, bypassing prior approval procedures that are not mandated under transposed EU legislation.

“A separate approval of the monitoring program is an additional administrative formality that goes beyond established notification and inspection mechanisms and does not stem from transposed European Union law,” the government stated in the explanatory note.

Targeted relief for transit and tourism

In passenger road transport, the reform eliminates route activity permits that duplicate existing authorizations under the Road Transport Code. Vehicle license plates and seat numbers will become optional on passenger tickets and fiscal receipts, accommodating pre-sales and standing passengers on routes under 50 kilometers.

In the agricultural sector, the government will repeal an outdated 2005 decision on plant protection products and fertilizers, integrating trace registers into modern regulations aligned with EU rules. Meanwhile, rural guesthouses will no longer need formal classification certificates to qualify for state investment subsidies, as obtaining the certificate is optional under national tourism law.

Waste management and compliance safeguards

Companies managing waste packaging, batteries, electrical equipment, and end-of-life vehicles under extended producer responsibility will see collective system procedures streamlined. Collective schemes will submit operational plans directly through general waste management licensing rather than seeking separate signoff from the Environmental Agency.

Cabinet authors affirmed that administrative streamlining will not weaken public oversight, as state audits, automated data exchanges, and technical compliance obligations remain fully active. The reform requires no supplementary state budget allocations, with responsible agencies adapting internal digital systems within existing operating frameworks.

Translation by Iurie Tataru

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Moldova moves to slash red tape across industries under growth plan

Dumitru Petruleac