Leonid Litra, expert of the Kiev-based Institute of World Policy, said the Republic of Moldova goes through a pronounced wave of Euro-skepticism that fuels even more the people’s distrust in the European values and the causes for such a situation seem to be in sight, namely corruption, lack of political will, politicians who care more about their own interests than the people’s interests. The expert, who is a member of the Civil Society Platform “Pro Europe” considers, the Euro-skepticism is a direct consequence of the way in which the Moldovan politicians during the last few years understood to do reforms, IPN reports, quoting an interview of Leonid Litra for “Pro Europe”.
Speaking about the practical solutions for diminishing this wave of Euro-skepticism and continuing the path of European integration, the expert said the only solution is to implement reforms with impact on the quality of life. “Some of the greatest illegalities were committed namely under the slogan of European integration, starting with the dubious concession of the Chisinau airport and ending with the theft of the US$1billion dollars. For this reason, in the case of the Republic of Moldova the European integration is involuntarily associated with the illegalities and difficult living conditions. This means that fighting corruption is the only credible method of giving the European integration a positive connotation, which is not an abstract area and which must include penalties and convictions in the loud cases such as Banca de Economii, the airport, the ‘raider’ attacks and others,” stated Leonid Litra.
According to the expert, it seems that the politicians cannot do reforms because they are vulnerable to corruption. Therefore, if they really do what they promote, this process could lead to the loss of power.
Moldova’s European future will always be in danger, even when Moldova obtains the status of a candidate for accession. The most recent examples in the Balkans and the EU states, such as Hungary, show there are no irreversible and permanent reforms. Moldova reached the moment when the declarations of intent and the pro-European pleadings are no longer efficient.
Leonid Litra said the fact that Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the EU is a very important step in coming closer to the EU. Regretfully, despite the signing of this accord, the relations with the EU worsened. A year is not enough for making exact assessments of how much this agreement brought Moldova closer to the EU. However, it seems that Moldova and the EU didn’t use the entire potential of this document, especially its economic dimension.
