President Igor Dodon this week will go to Brussels to take part in the meeting of the EU – Moldova Association Council. Before the visit, the European Parliament’s Rapporteurs for Moldova, MEP Petras Auštrevičius said Igor Dodon will have to answer a series of very harsh questions there.
“These questions are: how will you organize the elections, based on what electoral law, what will happen to the investigation into the banking fraud and to the invalidation of the election of Mister Nastase. We are impatiently waiting for Mister Dodon’s answers to these questions,” the MEP stated in an interview for Radio Free Europe’s Moldavan Service, which is quoted by IPN.
As to the decision to not validate the election of Andrei Nastase as mayor of Chisinau, Petras Auštrevičius said an immediate connection with the Association Agreement is seen in this decision as the Agreement is based on particular political principles, such as the rule of law, impartial co-decisions, etc. “The way in which this decision was taken arouses a number of issues. Mister Andrei Nastase campaigned against corruption and the ruling parties. So, we wonder: why namely Mister Nastase?…”, noted the MEP.
As regards the provision of financial assistance to the value of €100 million, Petras Auštrevičius said he supports Moldova in its efforts to implement the Association Agreement, but this is a two-way road. “We admit that particular objectives were achieved, but in June 2017 the Commission, Parliament and Council underlined in an unanimous voice that the political condition should be fulfilled for the macro-financial assistance to be provided as we consider the Association Agreement is a complex document with complex results,” stated the MEP.
According to him, if Moldova, for example, implements the chapter about agriculture from this document, but does nothing in terms of human rights, the assistance will not be disbursed. “We regret the fact that the Moldovan authorities ignored the Venice Commission’s recommendation concerning the change of the electoral law and this remains a big obstacle to providing the macro-financial assistance. What we see in Moldova bothers us. We suspect the judiciary is influenced politically. I wondered why the journalist weren’t allowed to attend in the courtroom and why the judgement was passed in secret and close to midnight,” stated the MEP.
