The political elites played a central role in choosing the orientation line of the countries that joined the European Union, said political pundit Igor Boțan, the permanent expert of IPN’s project, who also analyzed the experience of the Republic of Moldova in this regard at a public debate hosted by IPN. According to him, all legislatures in Moldova were pro-European or had periods when they promoted the accession to the European Union. Also, the citizens of the Republic of Moldova, including those from the diaspora, in proportion of two-thirds or even three-quarters are in favor of European integration, but there is a category of citizens that is oriented towards the Russian Federation. The authorities should inform all the citizens about the benefits of joining the European Union.
“Moldovan society is a priori divided, because, if we look at statistics, we have among the citizens of the Republic of Moldova a community that is oriented towards Russia. We are talking about national minorities that have the same rights and with whom we want to have the best relations, but we remember that there has always been talk about ethnic voting at every election and we already have the 11th legislature. Ethnic voting highlights that projects matter not much to this community because a nucleus of about 25-30% of the citizens remain under any conditions oriented towards Russia, even if there is war and Russia is the aggressor. It also goes to education within the Soviet Union, but even now, because of propaganda, this segment of the population in Moldova believes that Russia did only good and it was only liberating,” said Igor Boțan.
Speaking about the elites, the expert noted that all the legislatures were pro-European or had periods in which they promoted the accession to the European Union, starting with the first Parliament and up to now. In his opinion, there was no idea more important than that of European integration. On March 24, 2005, Moldova’s Parliament adopted the Declaration on the country’s European integration, when all the 101 MPs pleaded for it.
The expert reminded that Moldova is an EU candidate country that received the approval to start negotiations and so far it fulfilled six of the ten conditions that each country must meet to join the European Union. “Now we are waiting for the first conference to open negotiations. If we entered the negotiations, we advanced considerably. Of course, it also depends on how the events in Ukraine develop. We cannot deny the fact that they can have an impact on the European integration processes in Moldova,” said the expert, adding that Moldova enjoys Romania’s support in the integration process as a state that joined the European Union after the collapse of the USSR.
The permanent expert of IPN’s project said that the establishment of the European Union in stages started with security issues, with the European Coal and Steel Community, after which the problems of economic cooperation came to the fore. “The charm of the European Union is that, after passing these stages, the issue of the political community was put in the foreground and this is extremely important and this is the attractiveness of the European Union. All things are done in a gradual, well-thought-out manner, so why not to cooperate? If we cooperate, we enrich each other. After we cooperate and see that cooperation is so beneficial, why not to have common political institutions and so on? And here, of course, some problems occurred. And the charm of the European Union is that when these problems arise, they are solved,” concluded Igor Boțan.
The public debate entitled “EU enlargement after the collapse of the USSR. Moldova’s lesson” was the 36th installment of the series “Impact of the past on confidence- and peace-building processes”. IPN News Agency carries out this project with the support of the German “Hanns Seidel” Foundation.
