Even if Moldova has been considered during many years an ‘eminent’ country within the Eastern Partnership, the economic reforms and improvement of people’s welfare represent current objectives of the Government, considers Iulia Serbina, senior researcher at the Odessa Branch of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, Ukraine. In an interview with IPN, she said that protests can be mounted in Moldova following an economic crisis.
“You should not expect essential changes like those in Ukraine to take place in Moldova. It is evident that Moldovan society is not very interested in the events happening in Ukraine. Certain social activism can appear rather as a result of crisis situations in the Moldovan economy,” said the expert.
According to Iulia Serbina, at the current stage, given Moldova’s and other European countries’ dependence on Russian energy, the Moldovan administration’s position on the events in Ukraine will be moderate. The expert said she will not bring the Transnistrian issue into special focus in the context of the crisis in Ukraine.
Given that the major goal of the Moldovan government is to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, the Ukrainian expert was asked if the signing of the political part of the accord between Ukraine and the EU produced certain changes. “After the previous Ukrainian administration suddenly refused to sign the accord at the Vilnius summit, the situation changed radically. The signing of the political part of the Association Agreement is rather an act of symbolic support provided by the EU to Ukraine,” said Iulia Serbina.
She added that the political part generally envisions intensifying the role of civil society and consulting its representatives when taking decisions. Given such a situation, the signing of the agreement didn’t have serious repercussions for the situation in Ukraine. The liberalization of the visa regime for Ukrainians is the next step that can bring definite benefits to the state.
Iulia Serbina underlined that certain changes can appear after the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between Ukraine and the EU as the essence of association resides in this. Intense consultations on the matter are held this week, especially during the visit by Commissioner Štefan Füle to Kiev and the visits by other commissioners. These negotiations should have started at least one-two years before the signing of the accord, but things now develop according to a ‘fire extinguishing’ regime. Changes will become visible in the medium and long terms.
