The Republic of Moldova has all the chances to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, to create the Free Trade Area and to obtained a liberalized visa regime if it ensures political stability and follows the reformation path, considers political analyst Nicolae Negru. He stated for IPN that Moldova’s chances will increase if it keeps its promises. The EU sympathizes with the Moldovans and encourages them on the path to European integration. The statements were made after the foreign ministers of the Benelux countries said that Moldova must sign the agreement with the EU in the first half of next year.
As to Russian officials’ allusions that Moldova may go astray on its path to European integration and to the rejection of Moldovan agrifood products exported to Russia, Nicolae Negru said the Russians will not give up. They are making effort to hamper Moldova’s European integration process. In the case of Armenia, the Russians succeeded as the Armenian authorities declared that they chose the Eurasian Customs Union.
The analyst considers that Russia may have used different hidden instruments to hinder Armenia from following the road to the EU. “It was a surprise as the EU didn’t expect it, especially because the Armenian officials said the negotiations were sincere. We do not have reasons to believe that they were hypocritical, but Russia probably has levers about which we don’t know,” he stated.
However, Moldova must do its homework and the EU may thus support it even more, said Nicolae Negru. “I’m sure that the EU also has levers and instruments that it hasn’t yet shown. They say it was proposed discussing the pressure exerted by Russia on the EaP member states at the G20 Summit. Everything depends first of all on Moldova and then on others,” said the analyst.
Nicolae Negru underlined that the Moldovan authorities must make effort to cope with the pressure put by Russia, to keep calm and act with determination and not to respond to provocations as there will be more challenges. Moscow is agitated as it probably used up the traditional methods of exerting pressure on Moldova.
