At the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of November 29, 2013, Moldova will enter a new stage of relations with the European Union. What will it bring and how will it influence the life of the Moldovans from the country and from abroad? What will each of us gain and what should we do for this benefit to become possible? How will the new conditions affect Moldova’s relations with other countries? The IPN Agency aims to look for answers to these and other questions worrying society, together with you, within the series of articles “Association with the EU to everyone’s understanding
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The initialing of the Association Agreement is not the last step in fulfilling the conditions imposed by the EU. Moldova will have to meet certain requirements in order to be a credible partner for the European countries. The essential condition is to keep the pace of reforms and, in time, to meet the European norms and standards. After the liberalization of the commercial area, Moldova will have to abrogate a set of customs duties and taxes, while the exporters will be obliged to meet the conditions of exporting to the EU. A condition for liberalizing the visa regime is that the people must respect the rules of staying in the European countries and the laws and values of the host country.
“On the one hand, the imposed conditions mean additional financial costs, while on the other hand a higher technological level, more developed economy and public services,” said Anatol Taranu, director of the Institute for Political Analysis and Consultancy “Politicon”. In accordance with the Association Agreement, Moldova will have to standardize the national economy to the EU market requirements. It will also have to adopt and implement a set of legal acts concerning especially the juridical sector, the prosecution service and the fight against corruption. In order to ensure the quality of the exported products, Moldova will have to ensure efficient institutions and goods certification laboratories. The liberalization of the visa regime implies a set of measures aimed at securing the borders and the administrative line on the Nistru River. All these obligations imposed by the EU perfectly correlate with Moldova’s modernization.
The people play an important role in the European integration process. The authorities can fulfill all the conditions, but if society does not comply with the new provisions and the people do not behave and think like the Europeans, Moldova can lose ground in the process of coming closer to the EU. “The political culture must be increased. The people must learn to be more selective when they give their votes. They must obey the laws and comply with the standards that will not only bring us closer to the EU, but will also improve the living standards,” said Anatol Taranu.
The EU’s interest in the association with Moldova resides in the fact that it wants near a state that has practices similar to the European ones. The concluding of this agreement means not only effort on the part of the Moldovan people, but also a method of making more responsible the Moldovan functionaries who must have a rather wide knowledge.
Elena Bolshenko, IPN
