Pirkka Tapiola has named three major challenges that he has faced serving as Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, in an interview for IPN.
Being a diplomat in Moldova is the first challenge highlighted by Pirkka Tapiola, in light of the “incredibly close” relationship between the EU and our country.
“In addition to the political relations, we have a lot of EU money involved”, says the diplomat, adding that there is “the normal challenge on how you get all the instruments to work in a way in which it delivers on our major goals, which is to help this country to work in favour of the citizens, to grow economically, and where people feel empowered and where they have real opportunities”.
The second challenge faced by Pirkka Tapiola is related to the expectations of the Moldovans.
“I would like to remind that, a diplomat, by definition, is an outsider. He is not part of the domestic political process. Sometimes the boundaries in this county are very difficult to understand. From one side, government is using terms like pro-European, other politicians are using terms anti-European or pro-somebody else. So in a way there is an expectation that we would be involved in the political processes”, explains the diplomat.
Pirkka Tapiola says that since day one as head of the EU Delegation he has been following a policy, which has been a policy from Brussels as well, that Moldovan domestic politics remains Moldovan domestic politics. “Where we do get involved is if we see problems in terms of the implementation of our shared values”, says the diplomat, adding: “But it is still a role of an outsider.”
The third challenge is related to the volatility of the region. He thinks stereotypes and simplistic narratives should be avoided. A diplomat’s core task in regions like these, according to Pirkka Tapiola, is to try “to get to the bottom of events and to understand as objectively as possible, and using as many sources as possible to explain also to Brussels what is really happening in the country”.
Pirkka Tapiola has stressed that he has represented exclusively the EU while working in Chisinau. “I do not work for the Republic of Moldova, I work for the European Union in building our relationship based on the EU values and interests, which luckily in our case are the same thing”, said the European diplomat.
