At the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of November 29, 2013, Moldova will enter a new stage of relations with the European Union. What will it bring and how will it influence the life of the Moldovans from the country and from abroad? What will each of us gain and what should we do for this benefit to become possible? How will the new conditions affect Moldova’s relations with other countries? The IPN Agency aims to look for answers to these and other questions worrying society, together with you, within the series of articles “Association with the EU to everyone’s understanding
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The head of the National Participation Council Sergiu Ostaf, director of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO), considers that the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU will offer Moldova’s civil society more possibilities of becoming involved and asserting itself in the public sphere, also because the NGOs will enjoy increased promotion with the political, technical and financial support of the EU.
“The EU is actually the largest foundation worldwide that provides grants and has more developed relevant services than the U.S. Currently, 99% of the grants and non-reimbursable assistance are offered to the state directly and only 1% through the agency of NGOs,” said Sergiu Ostaf.
He underlined that the non-reimbursable allocations provided to NGOs will be afterward increased as the financial assistance for Moldova will be also augmented. Thus, civil society will enjoy increased financial support. Furthermore, it will be able to assimilate more policies aimed at financially strengthening the NGO sector in the European area. The benefits will be firm and clear.
“Imagine that there is a social problem related to human rights for example. When dealing with it, the nongovernmental organizations will be able to benefit from financial support for activities in this field and for developing certain social services or for formulating and promoting the necessary laws. Civil society will be able to apply for EU political support and it will be listened to by the Moldovan public authorities,” said Sergiu Ostaf.
The CReDO director also said there will be ensured experience exchange between organizations from Moldova and the EU. The benefits for the Moldovan NGOs are very great. The European authorities follow closely the civil society’s stance on issues of major interest for society. When civil society informs about a violation in the government process, its message will be heard by the European authorities too. The authorities of the EU use the civil society’s arguments in the dialogue with the Moldovan authorities.
The risks that civil society may face as a result of the deepening of the European integration process can derive from the fact that particular active and very skilled persons from this sector will go abroad, where they will have more employment and assertion opportunities. But these risks will be compensated by the support provided by the EU to civil society, including for preparing new well-trained activists in the field. It is important that civil society permanently form new people.
Competition is another risk. The Moldovan NGOs cannot compare themselves with other organizations from the EU as regards the provided services and innovations. But the Moldovan NGOs will have to struggle alongside the other public associations from the EU so as to obtain financial resources for their statute-related goals. The EU has separate programs for the foreign and local NGOs. It is a risk, but it is manageable and serves as a generator of qualitative improvements for the Moldovan NGOs, said Sergiu Ostaf.
Alina Marin, IPN
