The European Union will continue to cooperate with and to support Moldova, regardless of the outcome of the November 30 elections and who comes to power, Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola said in the October 16, 2014 public debate “Political culture in the context of polarization of political options in Moldova. Pro-European option: change as a chance and remedies against fear of change”, staged by IPN Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.

The diplomat said that governance, not the rulers count for the EU. “The chances for a European option will be about reforms, building democracy, going forward and we are not looking at who would be in government. The main thing that we would see is what is happening and that this needs to be very much a domestic reform process, which we are willing to support and which we will continue supporting,” stated Pirkka Tapiola.

“People are often asking me “who do your support in the elections?” and I will have one answer – I support the citizens of the Republic of Moldova and their free and fair right to choose at the polling box. We have seen that in the region, maybe not yet in this country, the people are more and more demanding that bottom-up society, they are more and more demanding that accountability. I would be the last person to doubt the maturity of citizens and the population. I look forward to working with any leader of the Republic of Moldova who will be elected to serve the people. And let me highlight: to serve, not to govern them,” said the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova.

“The European Union is not the Soviet Union. It is not something with a coercive capital that tells the other parts of the Union what to do and that punishes them if they do not obey. It is instead a Union that works on reforms with its partners, helps them, supports them and is making effort to transfer good practices.”

The October 16 debate also involved the project’s permanent expert Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy (ADEPT), and Anatol Taranu, director of the Institute for Political Analysis and Consultancy “Politicon”. This is the 34th of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates”. IPN Agency stages these debates the third consecutive year with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation and in cooperation with Radio Moldova.