EBU Vice-President Claudio Cappon held talks in Chisinau on Friday with the Moldovan Prime Minister and Finance Minister on the future of the EBU's Member, Teleradio Moldova.

TRM has been a beneficiary of the EBU's Special Assistance Project over the past 18 months. Mr Cappon's predecessor as Vice-President, Boris Bergant, assisted TRM in developing Strategic Guidelines for 2010-2015, which served as background to a newly-published study of three restructuring options. TRM was also a recipient of programmes made available by fellow EBU Members through the so-called Solidarity Programme Package.

The new study was presented at a conference in the Moldovan capital organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. TRM's management, backed by its Board, favours the most comprehensive and radical of the restructuring solutions presented. This would entail introduction of a licence fee and the sale or letting of existing buildings operated by TRM to finance construction of a purpose-built new headquarters fit for a converging digital world.

Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who opened the conference, expressed support for pushing through reforms at TRM but was reluctant to commit funds for a new building. Finance Minister Veaceslau Negruta, who attended a session addressed by Mr Cappon, also believed that TRM had more pressing priorities.

The EBU Vice-President had separate meetings with the Prime Minister and Mr Negruta during and after the conference. Mr Cappon said he believed the reform of TRM was at a turning point, and he requested the full support of Moldova's institutions in achieving this.  Mr Filat said he was in favour of broadening the financial base of TRM through introduction of a licence fee.