The executive director of the Information and Documentation Centre on NATO Ion Tabârță believes that the Republic of Moldova needs a development model and the European integration is such a development model, that country project towards which we must tend. In his opinion, this will help Moldova develop as a state, as a society, including in terms of welfare. According to him, the alternative model, the Eurasian one or the rapprochement with the Russian Federation, is not a functional one. The statements were made in a debate titled “Stages, objectives and benefits of the negotiation process with the EU”, organized by the Foreign Policy Association (APE).
“The Russian Federation is not the type of state to offer a development model. Even those integrationist processes that were triumphantly announced within the Eurasian Union do not work. We need democracy, we need a developed society, we need welfare. Namely in the European Union we can achieve all this,” said the Center’s director.
Ion Tăbârță noted that when people talk about the European Union, they necessarily highlight the high standard of living and welfare. And when they talk about certain fears, they refer rather to subjective aspects, which are based rather on Russian propaganda narratives. “They talk about the loss of national integrity, loss of sovereignty or loss of neutrality. Another aspect, which is probably the most debates one, refers to the sexual minorities, namely that there are too many freedoms. After all, all our citizens are aware that in the European Union the standard of living, the welfare of citizens are higher than in the same Russian Federation,” said the executive director of the Information and Documentation Center on NATO.
According to him, reference is always made to the Western world, where the people live well, but the Eastern European or post-Communist societies often do not really want to follow rules. “But if you want to have the benefits of the Western world, especially the economic benefits, you have to follow the rules. And the European Union, first and foremost, means rules. Within the EU, if you have certain agreements, if certain quality criteria are required, they must be respected. Our goods will circulate in the European Union. They will be exported if they meet a particular quality criterion,” explained Ion Tăbârță.
He also referred to the most circulated myths about the referendum on European integration. They start from political speculations that this referendum was proposed by President Maia Sandu to secure her second presidential term and end with the assertion that the referendum means giving up sovereignty, territorial integrity, neutrality.
“Obviously, particular interests, interests from outside the Republic of Moldova are promoted through internal political influence agents so that these referendums fail. And practically, by organizing the referendum this autumn, the stakes of the presidential election were greatly raised as the election was supposed to be rather a stage towards the parliamentary elections of 2025, when the political power in Chisinau is to be changed. Then we will see what we will have: we will have at the helm of the Republic of Moldova political forces that will continue the European path or we will have political forces of a different orientation that will talk about geopolitical balancing or even about integration into the Eurasian Union,” said Ion Tăbârță.
This debate was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of the authors of the opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government.
