The authorities of the Republic of Moldova perceive the European integration as a geopolitical and conjunctural process, rather than one aimed at modernizing the country internally. The formal nature of many of the undertaken measures, the lack of specialists and competitive salaries in important state institutions are the problems highlighted by the executive director of the Independent Think Tank Expert-Grup, Adrian Lupușor, at an event centering on the progress made by the Republic of Moldova in implementing the European Commission’s recommendations in the economic sector in the context of the accession to the European Union, IPN reports.

Adrian Lupușor said that, for the most part, the implementation of the recommendations has been initiated and noticeable progress has already been achieved, but the started reforms are still to be completed. Some measures were rather formal. In some places, the implementation of the European Commission’s recommendations was accelerated just for the record. This was especially visible in the adoption of strategic planning documents, last-minute strategies. In addition to the formal nature of the measures taken at the Court of Auditors, in the Cabinet, at the ministries, at the National Bureau of Statistics, there is a crisis of capacities, which must be solved.

“It’s clear to everyone that we engaged in this process following external constraints and geopolitical opportunities and we were not prepared for this complex process of European integration and we are learning as we go. This is absolutely normal, but, at the same time, we must also clearly tell the authorities that the European integration, from now on, is not only about geopolitics, but is also about the internal reform,” stressed Adrian Lupușor.

Analysts say that the adoption of strategic planning documents, laws is important, but their implementation is more important. “We need Parliament to play a more active role in exercising parliamentary control and we should solve this problem, or even crisis I would say, of making decision-makers accountable. Civil society should be more actively involved in the rigorous monitoring of pro-European reforms and processes. We should empower the public institutions. Without this, we will not achieve that goal of European integration by 2030,” said the director of Expert-Grup.

Stas Madan, program director at Expert-Grup, said that among all the documents that the Republic of Moldova undertook to respect, the highest degree of achievement was recorded where there was external pressure. From now on, the European integration process will subject the state of the Republic of Moldova to even greater external pressure. “In other words, if until now particular shortcomings or faults that civil society or the opposition, or someone else saw could be ignored, now these gaps that will be shown from Brussels will have much higher costs for decision-makers, including political costs. From this perspective, there is also a kind of optimism that this external pressure that will come from the European Union, along with the extension of the negotiation chapters, will put a much more significant positive pressure on the whole government to deliver more content and less formalism,” said the expert.