It would be good if Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the EU and had a period of about 10 years for free trade relations both with the CIS and the EU member states so that it accumulated experience and the people reached the conclusion that Moldova has a European future. But this period of time, which was real earlier, is no longer appropriate in the new geopolitical conditions, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT Igor Botan said in the public debate “Romania as a model for Moldova’s European course”, staged by IPN News Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.
“I believed that these 10 years would be useful to convince the Russian speakers from Moldova of the benefits of the rapprochement with the EU and to persuade them that what we do does not mean abandonment of the Russian culture and destruction of the relations with Russia, that for Moldova it is the social progress, economic development and implementation of modern models of reforming society that count. But this thing was possible before the secret meeting of the presidents of Russia and Ukraine of October 2013. After that meeting, I abandoned the idea of the 10 years,” said Igor Botan.
He noted that the idea of a period of 10 years as regards the free trade with the CIS and the EU member states faded away after Russia imposed bans on Ukraine and Moldova. This showed that Russia does not want Moldova to have bilateral relations with both of the organizations.
According to Botan, after the initiation of reforms, the people must have the feeling that they accept and understand that difficulties will be faced in a certain period, but, when this stage is overcome, Moldova will become a modern country. The people must also know what happens if Moldova abandons the European course after 12 years of cooperation with the EU. “If we do this, we will lose any chance of integrating into the EU. The European Union will turn its back as it is useless to discuss with an unreliable partner. If we go towards the Eurasian Economic Union, we will lag behind for many years there,” said the expert.
Igor Botan noted that all the things related to the rapprochement with the EU must be explained to the people, while the politicians must be sure that this is the objective that Moldova must achieve and must not inflate stereotypes on the political arena. According to him, on an average term Moldova cannot hope for an agreement similar to the Snagov one by which the political class of Romania accepted the country’s European course.
According to the expert, the campaign that will precede the coming parliamentary elections will focus not on speeches based on arguments, but rather on propagandistic clichés and stereotypes that were carefully cultivated on the political arena of Moldova. The people and the government will have to make a strategic choice.
The debate “Romania as a model for Moldova’s European course” is the 30th of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates” that are organized by IPN in concert with Radio Moldova and are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
