The Republic of Moldova can become a functional state only by integration into the European Union. If the necessary reforms are made, it is real for Moldova to submit an application for EU membership in two-three years, if the government remains pro-European, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Iurie Leanca stated in an interviewer for the newspaper “Timpul”.
The official said that after the elections, when he hopes a pro-European majority will be set up, an assessment will be carried out together with the partners from the West to determine the real time when an application for EU membership can be filed so as to obtain the candidate country status first, IPN reports.
Asked about the banking fraud, Iurie Leanca said this is a painful issue. The banking system is regulated not by the Government, but by the National Bank, which has access to information and has the duty to check and prevent or intervene. There are law enforcement agencies that should intervene when they are informed about systemic problems or frauds. “What I personally (when he was Prime Minister, e.n.) and my colleagues from the Cabinet could do was to accept the guarantee or to resign half a year earlier. I pondered a lot over this decision. If I had resigned then, we couldn’t have obtained the visa-free regime, the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement with the EU. Those from the West wouldn’t have discussed with a country that had entered a political crisis again,” stated the Deputy Prime Minister.
In another development, Iurie Leanca said the European People’s Party of Moldova that he heads voted to introduce the mixed electoral system alongside the Democratic Party and the Party of Socialists because this is a good method of preventing the Socialists from taking control of Parliament after 2018. “After we all went through the trauma of a Communist government, Moldova cannot allow another Communist party to come to power,” he stated, adding that President Igor Dodon is now trying to give the impression that he is a friend of the East and of the West too.
Iurie Leanca said that by his actions at the domestic and foreign levels, he will manage to restore the people’s confidence in the country’s European future. Before the legislative elections, the European People’s Party of Moldova is ready for form a bloc with the Democratic Party. “If someone tells me that it is possible to form a pro-European parliamentary coalition without the PDM, I would say that this is an irresponsible populist. Since 2009 until now, any pro-European majority coalition had the Democrats as partners,” stated the leader of the PPEM.
