Among the Eastern Partnership member states, Moldova implemented the largest number of reforms and makes the fastest progress in meeting the EU standards, says the third study “European Integration Index of Eastern Partnership Member States” that was carried out by a group of 50 experts from EaP member states. In Chisinau, the report was presented by the Institute for Development and Social Initiative IDIS “Viitorul”, IPN reports.
The Institute’s head Liubomir Chiriac said that though Moldova is at the top of the reformers, it has yet a lot to do as regards the education in the European integration sphere and the informing of the people about the European vector.
According to the report, over the last year Moldova maintained the closest relations with the EU and continually adjusted its legislation and policies to the European ones. Moldova is followed by Georgia, Ukraine, and Armenia in the rankings of the reforming countries. Azerbaijan and Belarus have the largest number of shortcomings.
However, Moldova lags behind Ukraine in such areas as the political dialogue, trade, economic integration and cooperation in different spheres with the EU. Also, Moldova is surpassed by Georgia as regards the market economy and the implementation of the conditions needed to create the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area.
At the same time, Moldova has the most developed interhuman contacts and is the recipient of the largest volume of assistance from the EU per capita. It also made the best progress in ensuring profound and sustainable democracy, except for the independence of justice, where it comes second after Georgia, and the fight against corruption, where it shares the first position with Georgia. Instead, Moldova made considerable progress in the area of human rights, given that it is the first EaP country that adopted the anti-discrimination law (the Law on Equality of Chances), in accordance with the basic requirements of the EU.
Expert Leonid Litra said that despite the progress made in the areas of democracy and good governance, Moldova still faces problems in ensuring decisional transparency, depoliticization of the law enforcement and the justice reform.
For the first time, a study of the performance indexes of the six EaP member states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine) was made in 2011.
