Romania’s Ambassador to Moldova Daniel Ioniță considers that Moldova should respect more commitments so as to be able to maximally use the support offered by the foreign partners and these commitments are not imposed by Brussels, as some say. They are stipulated in the agreements signed by Moldova, including those assumed before Brussels, such as the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement. These agreements were negotiated and contain hundreds of pages that were signed and assumed by the Republic of 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.
“In Romania, there was national consensus on this subject. Romania realized that its path goes to the West and only to the West, through the integration into the European Union, and we all put our backs into it. As long as you have a majority in society that wants the European integration, this majority should be taken into account and work should be done in this regard,” stated Daniel Ioniță.
According to the diplomat, the years that preceded Romania’s entry into the EU were difficult, with many challenges, but also with accomplishments. Romanian society exited the year 1989 with a series of problems. It was a period of internal turbulence, but during it Romanian society managed to mobilize and to do the necessary reforms that enabled Romania to integrate into NATO in 2004. The second side of the given coin, called the European and Euro-Atlantic integration, was represented by the moment of 2007, when Romania stepped inside the European Union.
Daniel Ioniță noted that after Romania joined the EU, changes were started in the justice sector and not only. They began to strengthen the democratic institutions, cooperation with all the responsible institutions of the administration so as to promote the objective of Romania’s accession to the EU. It was an important foreign policy objective, but the European Union at present is related to Romania’s foreign policy and is no longer a foreign policy objective. This meant the creation of efficient mechanisms of cooperation between all the institutions of the local and central public authorities. It was a multidisciplinary, multi-sector approach that equally affected all the state institutions, but they knew what they wanted and worked in this direction.
The ambassador said the integration into NATO ensured security for the Romanians and the integration into the EU brought personal stability and prosperity to all the Romanians. The four freedoms were opened automatically. The Romanians could travel freely and work in the EU member states as all the other citizens of the EU. The equality of capital, investment and ideas was ensured. Direct investment to Romania increased considerably. This investment created an excellent basis for direct economic prosperity for all the citizens of Romania. The average salary in the economy increased and is close to the Europeans average at present.
In another development, the ambassador said the political will and the trust put by the citizens contributed primarily to ensuring the independence of justice in Romania as “only an independent legal system that is far from any political interference can represent not only a guarantee of democracy and the rule of law, but also a guarantee of the own future”. Daniel Ioniță considers all the citizens should be equal before the law, but this is not possible in the absence of independent justice that would be free from any political interference and party interests, from any kind of hidden goals.
