The Moldovan authorities should transform the armed forces into professional forces and should make the military and civil service mandatory only for periods of war and crisis, considers Minister of Defense Vitalie Marinuta, Info-Prim Neo reports. On his blog, the minister wrote that the Republic of Moldova could not create the conditions needed for the military and civil service to really become a sacred obligation of every citizen. Now, these forms, especially the military service, are mainly for the poor ones. Vitalie Marinuta says that most of the countries abolished the compulsory military service. Last year Germany suspended the mandatory military and civil service. Germany, as the U.S., kept this service in the Constitution only for emergencies. An argument in favor of maintaining the obligatory military service in any society is the existence of a foreign military danger. According to the minister, there is currently no imminent foreign military threat that would justify the mandatory recruitment of all the Moldovan men aged between 18 and 27. The mandatory military service in times of peace is unnecessary and even illegal from certain viewpoints. Vitalie Marinuta said that the existence of a separatist region and of foreign military forces on the country’s territory requires keeping a military force. However, the authorities should not call up all the men of the country for a period of one year. There should be better developed a voluntary force of professional servicemen that would serve Moldova’s interests in the country and abroad. Recently, MEP Monica Luisa Macovei said the Moldovan authorities should think about abolishing the mandatory military service if they want to make progress on the path to European integration.