At the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of November 29, 2013, Moldova will enter a new stage of relations with the European Union. What will it bring and how will it influence the life of the Moldovans from the country and from abroad? What will each of us gain and what should we do for this benefit to become possible? How will the new conditions affect Moldova’s relations with other countries? The IPN Agency aims to look for answers to these and other questions worrying society, together with you, within the series of articles “Association with the EU to everyone’s understanding
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The initialing of the Association Agreement for the people who want to go abroad to travel or on business means that the liberalization of the visa regime is very close, said the head of the Bureau for Diaspora Relations. “It should be noted that at the Vilnius Summit Moldova will get the grade it deserves for doing its homework. Form now on everything will depend on the decisions that will be taken in the European capitals,” stated Victor Lutenko.
Moreover, when Moldova is a party to the Free Trade Agreement and associates itself politically with the EU, it will be possible to extend the civil aviation agreement, while owing to the liberalization of the visa regime the trips will intensify.
“This means that that number of passengers going through the Chisinau International Airport will be much higher and the foreign companies’ interest in Moldova will grow. This will lead to cheaper tickets. Thus, we will have a visa liberalization agreement that seems to have nothing to do with the prices and accessibility of trips, but in reality it influences things a lot,” said the Bureau’s head. Owing to the deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, there will appear a series of benefits as regards the jobs as they will be more accessible and better paying, and especially as regards living standards.
Victor Lutenko also considers there will be a certain ‘discomfort’, but it won’t be long-lasting. “When becoming part of this area of visa-free trips in the EU, Moldova will surely hold interest for other third countries as a country of transit for migration in the EU. We may witness more cases of illegal migration too,” he stated.
Another aspect that can lead to unmet expectations is the fact that the liberalized visa regime does not mean freedom to emigrate from Moldova. It only enables to go to the EU for a limited period of up to 90 days, but the right to work and the right to stay permanently represent separate processes that are regulated by the internal legislation of every EU member state. “It is important to know to communicate and to tell the people what a liberalized visa regime is so that they do not think that their expectations are not met,” said Victor Lutenko, adding that the positive aspects of the association processes will be much greater in number than the negative ones.
Victor Lutenko said the ordinary people’s role is to analyze the options and to make a choice, if they want to support such a course. Secondly, it is very important that the people know that the legislation must be obeyed.
Irina Ţurcanu, IPN
