The institutions of the EU, except for the European Parliament, choose to adopt a pragmatic approach in relation to the government of Moldova, which, being weakened and discredited, needs minimal approval from outside and at home to survive politically until the legislative elections, expert in political sciences Dionis Cenusa says in an opinion article for IPN Agency.
In this context, particular reforms can be easier pushed, but this will contribute to improving the image of the Democrats, who will not only increase their electoral potential, but can also cause nervousness in the opposition’s dialogue with the EU, said the politologist.
Even if the area where the conditionality instrument can be applied is broadened, the EU will be more often requested by the opposition and civil society to react to the government’s acts, warns Dionis Cenusa.
According to the expert, the utility of the conditionality instrument, extended in the case of the macro-financial assistance, could fail if proportionality is absent in the implementation process. Thus, the EU should keep the balance in solving the crises produced by a controversial, but permanently inventive government, without damaging the relationship with the increasingly demanding extraparliamentary opposition and civil society.
The approaching of the electoral year 2018 leads to the raising of stakes, making the relations between the government and the extraparliamentary opposition tenser, in parallel with the maximization of the opposition’s expectations of Moldova’s foreign partners.
If the EU offers macro-financial assistance, it should explain this decision more clearly so as not to generate confusion among the Euro-optimistic population. An explained and efficiently communicated decision will also help save the image of the extraparliamentary opposition that insists on the blocking of the macro-financial assistance owing to the adoption of the law on the mixed electoral system, concluded Dionis Cenusa.
