To achieve the European integration objective, everyone should subscribe to this objective and believe that it is the only way by which the prosperity, stability and future of the citizens can be ensured. The political forces should also look in one direction. It happened so in Romania, which has been a member of the EU for 13 years, Romania’s Ambassador to Moldova Daniel Ioniță stated in an interview produced as part of a series of thematic interviews with EU ambassadors on the occasion of Europe Days, IPN reports.
According to the diplomat, the Republic of Moldova was also offered direct assistance by the EU, based on conditionality elements that in essence refer to political commitments that appeared when Brussels identified departures in Chisinau. “These conditionality elements should be regarded as pieces of advice that come from sincere friends who help you not only in need, but also when it feels that you deviated somehow from the path that you undertook to cover”.
Daniel Ioniță considers the country’s commitments represent nothing else but a “bureaucratic reflection” of the expectations the Moldovan citizens and the citizens of any other democratic state have of their rulers. These expectations concern the rule of law, independent justice free from any political dependence, independent mass media. “A Broadcasting Code needs to be implemented and the authorities in Chisinau should do what they repeatedly promised to do to the own people - to take steps to recover the stolen bank funds that are a huge financial burden.”
In another development, the ambassador said that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, as in any other crisis, there are persons who want to profit from the consequences and others who really believe that only together they can overcome this crisis. “Such a crisis is a litmus test by which we test the characters and only the strong characters will definitely be those that will succeed and will survive and on which one could bank in the medium and long terms”.
Daniel Ioniță noted that Romania has always been near the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. Romania supports Moldova’s European course and the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the Republic Moldova, which is based namely on the European course, was recently celebrated. On the other hand, Romania supports the citizens of the Republic of Moldova through the provided assistance, especially when these citizens need. Romania, alongside other EU member states, expressed ssolidarity with the Moldovan citizens and not only offered financial support, but also made effective gestures.
The ambassador said that Romania sent to Moldova, amid the pandemic, a team of 52 persons, 41 of whom were doctors and medical, civilian and military nurses, who came on a voluntary basis to offer humanitarian assistance to the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. They were assigned to work in Cahul, Bălți and Chisinau and they worked together with their colleagues from Moldova to save lives. Romania also donated medical equipment and medicines to the value of €3.5 million. It imposed no conditions for providing this assistance and only asked that it reaches the Moldovan citizens. Besides medical protective equipment, it donated thousands of boxes of drugs used in the fight against the pandemic and substances for disinfecting surfaces.
“We hope this equipment will help the doctors from all the hospitals of the Republic of Moldova to protect themselves as we know that if the doctors are healthy, we will definitely have the chance to be healthy and our level of confidence and our hope for a better and, why not, for a more normal life increase,” stated Daniel Ioniță.
