“The Association Agreement will lead to Moldova’s loss of sovereignty”, “The Association Agreement will further enflame Russia-Moldova relations”, “Consumer prices will increase as a result of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area”. These are only some of the most spread hypotheses about the Association Agreement with the European Union. Are they true theories or just myths? IPN aimed to find out the answer from a number of independent experts and officials working in the addressed areas.
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"Signing the Association Agreement poses a threat to Moldovan culture and traditional values"
Doctor Habilitate Varvara Buzila, university lecturer and vice director of the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, said the given assertion represents a justified fear and the issue should be discussed with opinion leaders so as to successfully conceptualize the future projects. “We must simply know our culture, the values defended by it and to really live by them. In order to better understand what happens and can happen in this area in the future, we should determine the current situation in the traditional system of values,” she stated.
According to Varvara Buzila, the representatives of the European community, as all the foreigners visiting Moldova, want to see our identity, originality, cuisine, music and dances. The foreigners feel and do not approve of aping and imitations that we sometimes improvise out of ignorance, wanting to please them. Some of the communities join the people for a common cause such as protecting the nature and monuments of culture and history, despite the actions of economic sharks that tend to profit both from monuments and from the civic spirit. They are now taking more coherent steps at local, national and regional levels to protect the traditional cultural expressions.
Varvara Buzila noted that the Republic of Moldova ratified a number of UNESCO conventions on the protection of the cultural and natural heritage and, during the last few years, adopted the necessary legislative and normative framework in this respect. This offers guarantees that the traditional values and culture will be perpetuated. So as to anticipate the dangerous trends and avoid unwanted consequences, it’s time to rethink our personal and collective actions and to ask ourselves what we should do to benefit from the great openness appearing in the European integration process without losing the traditional cultural stock that represents us as a people, which is very important. We thus need specialists in identity management, well-trained young people who know and can recover the cultural stock so as to cooperate efficiently in implementing the social project of culture. This project is also a guarantee of economic success.
On its website, the Delegation of the European Union to Moldova says rather than seeking to change anyone’s culture, the EU is committed to defending the diversity of European culture. The EU is an organization which celebrates diversity; after all, its motto is “united in diversity”. The European Union respects Moldovan cultural values and the Association Agreement not only recognizes, but will help to protect these. In particular, the Association Agreement, just like the EU Treaty, does not impose any change with regard to religious practice. Religious convictions belong to the private sphere and as such cannot be a matter for state interference; each citizen, if she or he wishes so, is free to practice the religion of her or his choosing. The European Union respects religious diversity and promotes mutual tolerance and dialogue among religions.
Alina Marin, IPN
