The government, the opposition and civil society have differing opinions about the EU accession questionnaire that was passed on to the EU Ambassador to Moldova yesterday. The opposition MPs demand equal rights in the examination of the document, while political commentators say that after the filling out of this questionnaire, society should not have big illusions as the road to accession is very long and thorny. For their part, representatives of the government said the document could be published next week, IPN reports.
On Friday, the Republic of Moldova transmitted to the European Commission the completed first part of the questionnaire that it received from Brussels on April 11. The document was handed over to the EU Ambassador in Chisinau Janis Mazeiks. Representatives of civil society said the obtaining of the candidate country status will mean the irreversibility of the European course, but the European integration of the Republic of Moldova is yet far.
“We should not have many illusions about this questionnaire. It comes amid a war that is a lifebuoy for the three states, primarily for Ukraine, which is involved in a life and death war. The asking of this is open gate by the three states and the swiftness with which the European Union accepted this path were possible due to the war between Ukraine and Russia. On the one hand, it is a clear signal that these three states, by excellence, are part of the joint European space. One the other hand, there is internal will in Kyiv, Chisinau and Tbilisi. The European integration perspective is not near and we must admit that the Republic of Moldova is far from meeting the accession criteria,” historian Octavian Țîcu stated in the program “Ghețu Asks” on TV8 channel.
“The European integration is not the key issue now. It comes to the candidate country status whose obtaining is followed by hard work. It is an important process that can yet lead to nowhere. What happens next depends a lot on the developments related to the war. It is only an encouragement on the part of the European Union, which also does not know what will happen,” said political commentator Corneliu Ciurea.
Members of the parliamentary opposition said the process of filling out the questionnaire was fully non-transparent and the document was accessible only to representatives of the government.
“We asked to have this questionnaire, but the opposition didn’t have access to it. As the MPs of the government could take part in the filling out process, the opposition MPs should have had the same right. But the opposition was fully excluded. We, as MPs, also have access to the state secret and can be held accountable if we reveal it. If the MPs who have access to the state secret didn’t see this document , what can we say about society,” said MP of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists Adrian Lebedinschi.
“The Government couldn’t have published this questionnaire unilaterally. There are two sides involved in this process - the Government of the Republic of Moldova and the European Union through the EU Delegation. The Government was responsible for the filling out procedure as this is a technical process. The European Union was asked for permission for publishing the document and we expect to receive a response next week,” said PAS MP Alexandru Trubca.
On April 22, President Maia Sandu signed a decree to constitute the National Commission on European Integration that will involve representatives of a number of authorities and will coordinate the efforts to prepare Moldova’s accession to the EU.
