How ready is the European Union to accept new members and how ready is Moldova for accession? IPN’s reporter Alina Marin discussed these and other issues with professor Ludger Kühnhardt, director of the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) of the University of Bonn (Germany), who gave a series of public lectures at Moldova’s National Institute of Justice, the Balti University “Alecu Russo”, and the Comrat University.
− One of the lectures is themed “European Union – law, identity and integration in times of geopolitical disquiet”. How ready is the EU to accept new members in ‘times of geopolitical disquiet’ and how open and prepared is Moldova for becoming an EU member?
− The European Union in 2004-2007 and then in 2013, by Croatia’s accession, grew by 11 new members to 28. This fact had many consequences for the internal functioning of the EU and the most important fact was to make sure that the people from the older member states and from those that joined the EU after 2004 felt as a whole. The EU now faces a new task, related to the competitiveness of its economy. It’s about the growth and renewal of the economy for coping with new changes in the world economy. This thing is related to changes at institutional level. The President of the European Commission Jean Claude Junker is making effort to cope with these changes and to bring about changes in society. It is about acceptance among the 150 million inhabitants of the EU. Only a powerful European Union can be a good partner of Moldova. That’s why what I said now is very important for Moldova too. In this respect, the EU has a series of top priority tasks for the next few years. It is essential for Moldova not to wait for a concrete date or fact of the association with the EU. It should make effort to fill with life the assumed commitments, to fulfill them and make legislative and institutional changes. Only when the legal framework is the same in the EU and Moldova, will we be able to become good partners.
A question is important for Moldovan society and every citizen apart: What do these values of the EU that they will share with the 150 million people living in the EU mean? In this respect, it is very important to ensure a dialogue in society, concerning the meaning of these values and the contribution of each of us to common welfare. For Moldova’s economy, this means preparation for being competitive on the common EU market. New technologies should be thus implemented and new export markets should be discovered. The products must be of a high quality so that these find a place on the EU market. This would ensure workplaces for young people, who will no longer go abroad to work, but will contribute to the development of their country and the population’s welfare. Thus, the EU and Moldova are in the center of serious transformation processes. Each of the sides has a lot to do in the next ten years and everything happens in a tense geopolitical context. The Russian administration, including Putin (Russia’s President Vladimir Putin), must understand that any attempt to hamper the rapprochement between the EU and Moldova will lead only to the acceleration of this process.
The EU member states, as Moldova’s population, have the right to self-determination. The people of Moldova expressed their wish by supporting the signing of the Association Agreement, which was wanted and agreed by both of the sides and we will allow no one to limit this right to self-determination. All the political players assert this thing and, as a researcher and observer, I can confirm that the related studies are right.
− How credible is Moldova given the current situation in its banking system?
− All the offenses and serious abuses committed against the European values and norms are not at all a contribution needed for the population of Moldova to recognize and accept the EU and for the EU to recognize Moldova.
− Does this mean that the country’s image was spoiled and we are no longer credible before the EU?
− The concern refers not only to Moldova’s image, but also to the image of the EU, which is to become Moldova’s partner. Surely, at official level, such negligence by the government will not be accepted and will always be criticized as this is negligence of the European values. We are a society based on values. This does not mean that we are all angels, but we will not accept such abuses aimed against our norms and values because we live in a controlled democratic environment, where the law rules, and we will use all the juridical and legal means to follow and condemn such actions. As Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister during World War II) said: “Democracy is the second best form of government, but the first does not exist”. That’s why self-criticism and criticism between partners represent fundamental elements in the process of renewing relations between partners.
− How can we reach a common idea of European integration in the absence of national unity? How should we unite Moldovan society, especially following the last studies showing that the number of Euro-skeptics is on the rise?
− The decisive question is: What do we want to do in Europe in the future decades? Do we want to be a union where power rules, not the law? Or do we want to be a community based on law? Crimes and offenses are committed in any society, but we must be able to help those who are weaker because transparency, control and respect are important for us, even in respect of peoples that are smaller, poorer and less powerful. Do we want to live within an economic system that failed not 20 years ago, but 100 years ago? Or do we want to live in a society where innovation, creativity and phantasy, especially among young people who plead for progress in thinking, are promoted. These things are based on the respect for human dignity and freedom of convictions and of ideas? Do we want to live in a regional union where there are atomic weapons and there is a very wide discrepancy between the rich and the poor, like in the most deprived states of the world? Or do we want to live in a regional union based on social inclusion, more balanced distribution of resources and social responsibility that those from the power promise to us? I’m convinced that Moldova’s people know what the appropriate decision for their future and for the future of their children in Moldova is. Anyway, whatever the decision is, the European Union will accept it and will not send ‘little green men’, as it happened a year ago in Crimea, where they were sent by someone else.
− Why did you choose to give lectures namely before students, namely at the universities of Balti and Comrat?
− I chose the north and the south because these parts form part of the country and the center cannot function without them, while the situation of young people is everywhere the same. The young people to whom I spoke, those born in the 1990s, after the cold war, are those who will decide Moldova’s destiny and a part of the European Union’s destiny. In Balti and in Comrat too, the young people are as important as those from Chisinau because they are also Europeans. These young people from Balti and Comrat are the same Europeans I see in Born and Brussels and are the young people with whom we cooperate and work on building the EU’s future. Europe is there where the European values are lived by.
Alina Marin, IPN
