The citizens of the Republic of Moldova must not miss the opportunity for European integration. It was a good conjuncture from the point of view of the premature invitation to the European Union and Moldova has no right to miss this chance, which is not only for the current generations, but also for the grandchildren of these generations. And if, God forbid, times change and there is a relaxation in the idea of joining the EU, there is a solution – to vote for the union with Romania in the Parliaments in Chisinau and Bucharest, the former President of Romania Traian Băsescu, a Member of the European Parliament, stated during a debate on Moldova’s European path hosted by the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, IPN reports.
Traian Băsescu considers the moment is extremely important for the countries of the European Union as well. Elections to the European Parliament are held on June 9. But it is also an important moment for Moldova, which is preparing for a referendum in October. “A referendum that will ultimately define the people’s will about the European Union option or the East option. I wouldn’t necessarily say Russia, but in the East whatever you do, you bump into Russia anyway. And what we see about Russia, we see in eastern Ukraine – damaged apartment buildings, homeless people, broken and grieving families,” said the former President of Romania.
The MEP noted that he, as a man who has seen what the East means and what the European Union means, has a piece of advice – to join the EU as soon as possible. “I will give you a minor example. So far Romania has received €132 billion from the EU for its development and has another €80 billion available for the next four years – to build highways, modernize railways, institutions, improve the environmental situation. I wanted to give you these elements, maybe not very important, but they seemed suggestive to me. Once you enter the EU, you have the guardianship, the umbrella of the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU Treaty. Article 2 guarantees rights – the rights to dignity, freedom, the rule of law, the right to express one’s point of view, to health, to education,” exemplified Traian Băsescu.
In the opinion, the union with Romania is another solution for the Republic of Moldova to become part of the European family. “If, God forbid, times change and there is a relaxation in the idea of joining the EU, you have a solution – vote in Parliament for the union with Romania. That means entering the European Union in one night, without much effort related to negotiations. But let’s not be naïve as Moldova has Russian troops and separatism on its own territory. Then the politicians, if they are faced with a choice, and they will be – either in the union with Romania or in the procedure of accession – the politicians in Moldova will have to decide the separation of Transnistria from the Republic of Moldova because it is not possible to import frozen conflicts into the EU. The Treaty on European Union rejects this,” explained the MEP.
According to him, it is a reality and the accession has a cost and the cost is called Transnistria. “Of course, I don’t want to get into speculations – what can be done, what can be negotiated - but I wanted to present things to you with maximum simplicity. Otherwise, everyone can complicate the situation through various scenarios. But whatever scenario is made, the same conclusion is reached – abandoning Transnistria, if the putschists in Tiraspol will not understand that they are part of the Republic of Moldova and, in the meantime, they will come to their senses. This could happen because in Transnistria there are already enough people who have applied for Romanian citizenship. The reality is that the EU was the solution for peace and this is extremely important for the Republic of Moldova, given the developments in Ukraine. And not necessarily for today or tomorrow, but for the future. Russia is an uncertainty for Moldova. Both the politicians and the citizens of the Republic of Moldova must take into account this risk and this uncertainty when participating in the referendum to choose the direction in which the Republic of Moldova should go,” said Traian Băsescu.
He also said that when the EU accession treaty is signed, that country gives up quite a lot of sovereignty. “You give them the right to control your finances, to impose sanctions if you don’t follow the rules, you allow them to control your environment and impose sanctions if you don’t respect the environment, etc. And so, basically a good part of the powers of the sovereign state are transferred to the European Union, which not only controls you, but also makes your laws. And then, the national Parliament takes the directive adopted by Brussels and transposes it into national law,” said the former President of Romania.
