Moldova repeats the exercise of re-opening the European financial assistance just 4 years after its first banning, caused by the banking system fraud, revealed after the 2014 parliamentary elections, writes political scientist Dionis Cenușa in an article for IPN News Agency.
This time, to restore the access to European funding took place at a rapid pace, without setting any (pre-)conditions. On the contrary, the EU has made a political assessment of the actions taken by the new government in the first almost two months of the mandate. In other words, the unblocking of assistance in 2019 relies more on the credibility and intention of the government and the parliamentary majority than on exploring definitive and concrete results, argue Dionis Cenușa.
Firstly, comments the political scientist, the EU imposed a series of conditionality for the Democratic Party in early 2016, whose assessment was essential to restore budget assistance. When resuming budget support in 2019, the EU did not ask any specific conditionality from the PSRM-ACUM coalition.
He believes that, on the one hand, the EU requirements for unblocking assistance in 2018 were addressed to the Democratic Party, suspected of canceling the results of the Chisinau elections through a controlled justice. On the other hand, the establishment of the government in 2019 took place by the failure of Vladimir Plahotniuc's attempt to perpetuate his power, subordinating the Constitutional Court and other state institutions.
For these reasons, the conditionality linked to EU budget assistance to Moldova seems to have lost its relevance, at least temporarily, with the defeat of the oligarchic regime. But this will be further tested when the negotiations on macro-financial assistance, halted in 2018, are resumed, explains the political scientist.
According to him, the second point of differentiation is the change of attitude towards the actions of the government in Moldova. During the period of the Democratic Party, the European institutions demonstrated a strict attitude, which contrasts with the friendly and non-exigent treatment of the PSRM-ACUM governing coalition.
The lack of exigency on the part of the EU results from the actions of the new Moldovan authorities, considered as sufficient progress in restoring budget support in 2019. Thus, out of four aspects identified as success by Commissioner Hahn, only two refers to accomplished facts, but they do not have the reform part – re-launching of relations with IMF and setting the day for local elections, opinionates Dionis Cenușa.
At the same time, the third action is purely declarative - the promise to carry out the reforms dictated by the AA / DCFTA and the fourth lies in ongoing actions - the Parliament’s initiation of investigation into the case of on billion theft from the banking sector by the Parliament, etc. Consequently, it is noticeable that the EU sympathizes with the PSRM-ACUM coalition, for its role in fighting the oligarchic regime, but also for the first steps in delivering certain reforms, believes the political scientist.
Last but not least, the speed with which the European institutions have unfrozen the budget support in 2016 and 2019, respectively, stands out. Due to the lack of conditionality, motivated by a euphoric approach to the governing anti-oligarchic forces (ACUM bloc), the EU activated its financing support in less than 2 months. In 2016, because of the enormous distrust against the Democratic Party, strongly associated with the bank fraud, the EU released the money only 10 months after it assessed that Moldova met the conditions, reports the political scientist.
Although the re-launch of EU-Moldova relations is somewhat at an early stage, trust in the integrity and sincerity of the government in Chisinau has lowered the European exigency. In spite of the negative precedents that led to the suspension of European assistance for Moldova in recent years, Brussels stands in favor of the PSRM-ACUM coalition without putting too much emphasis on conditionality, concludes Dionis Cenușa.