The immediate task of the new head of the EU Delegation in Moldova will be to assess the implementation of the “political pre-conditions” on which depends whether the EU will offer macro-financial assistance to Moldova or not, political scientist Dionis Cenusa writes in an analysis for IPN Agency.

Pirkka Tapiola’s job as head of the EU Delegation was complicated by a series of internal challenges, such as the bank fraud, the PDM power monopoly, the election of a pro-Russian president, as well as external ones, such as the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the separatist war in Eastern Ukraine, explains Cenusa.

The expert thinks that the next chief of the EU Delegation, Slovak diplomat Peter Michalko, will have to deal both with some of these unsolved issues and with some new ones that can already be seen on the horizon.

According to Cenusa, in the long term, Michalko will have to strike a balance between maintaining a critical stance towards the quality of reforms implemented by the government and avoiding the politicization of his discourse or falling into political partisanship.

The success of his tenure depends on his communication skills and the ability to build a dialogue with Moldovan politicians, mass media and public opinion. Knowing Romanian, Russian and Ukraine will help him in his public diplomacy endeavors, which are certain to be a big part of his job, writes Dionis Cenusa.

The pundit thinks that the 2018 parliamentary elections and the possibility of pro-Russian parties gaining a majority, as well as the risk of aggravation of the situation in the separatist Transnistria or the autonomous Gagauzia, are among the main challenges the Slovak diplomat will have to deal with in Moldova