Public Policy Association suggests creating special European Integration Ministry

Moldova needs an institution that would promote the European integration agenda. Otherwise, the optimistic statements about the talks on the Association Agreement and the liberalization of the visa regime will look exaggerated. Such an opinion was expressed by the director of the Foreign Policy Association Victor Chirila in a new meeting of the Association's Press Club, Info-Prim Neo reports. The meeting focused on the successes and failures of the Moldovan Foreign Ministry during the governance of the Alliance for European Integration. The Foreign Policy Association proposes creating a European Integration Ministry or Office under the Prime Minister's Office. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration should continue the internal reform launched at the end of 2009. For this to happen, the persons who have been recently engaged at the Ministry and the bureaucrats trained to do their jobs well should show great strength of will. The fact that the specialists at the Foreign Ministry are employed by public contest is welcome. “It is also necessary to restructure the Ministry. The current structure created by former Minister Andrei Stratan was aimed at centralizing the decision-making process. Until an institutionalized communication system is set up, the decisions will depend on the will of the Foreign Minister,” Victor Chirila said. According to experts of the Association, the governing alliance achieved remarkable results in the political dialogue with the EU. Moldova is close to obtaining a road map for liberalizing the visa regime and signing the Association Agreement that could be later transformed into an accession process. As to the relations with the official Bucharest, Victor Chirila said that a strategic partnership based on Moldova's European integration objectives is now being established between Moldova and Romania. The Moldovan Foreign Ministry showed Ukraine that Moldova is interested in solving all the major problems and border-related problems. In the relations with Moscow, the Moldovan administration showed readiness to develop a partnership based on mutual respect and common interests. Victor Chirila also said that Moldova does not have a strategy for regulating the relations with Russia, which is its main Eastern partner and whose position at foreign level is unpredictable. Such a strategy should be worked out by national and foreign experts. It should deal with a series of issues related to the Moldovan-Russian relations, neutrality status and the Transnistrian region's future. In the end, the expert said the Moldovan Foreign Ministry managed to obtain moral, political, economic and financial support from the U.S., the EU and a number of international financial organizations. Moldova needs this support in order to cope with the challenges related to the country's democratization. The meetings of the Press Club of the Foreign Policy Association are organized with support from the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation Moldova.