Press Release
on the organization of the debate ”EU candidate status in times of cumulative, internal and external crises”. Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”

Held on 13 July 2022, Debate No.256 brought together: Political scientist Dionis Cenușa, an associate expert of the Eastern Europe Studies Center of Lithuania, Political commentator Anatol Țăranu and Director of the Association “Initiative for Peace” Alexandru Flenchea.

Political scientist Dionis Cenușa, an associate expert of the Eastern Europe Studies Center of Lithuania, said the EU candidate status is an advanced status for the countries that have bilateral relations with the EU. First of all, it goes to the countries that want to join this political-economic bloc. The candidate status allows to develop closer relations together with the fulfillment of the conditions for starting accession negotiations.

“For a country like the Republic of Moldova to be able to join the European Union, it first of all needs to obtain the candidate status and to then fulfill other conditions and to later open accession negotiations. The Republic of Moldova obtained this status amid cumulative, internal and external crises. These crises actually represent situations of instability deriving from internal or external problems that can be of any kind. In the case of the Republic of Moldova, we speak about several types of crises and the most important ones are generated by external situations and circumstances that later create internal ramifications in Moldova and these need to be dealt with by the national authorities,” explained Dionis Cenușa, IPN’s senior contributor.

According to him, in the Republic of Moldova the European integration process and the dialogue with the European partners are coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. But this does not mean that other institutions do not become involved. On the contrary, this complex process involves all the state institutions, under the umbrella of the Government and, directly, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Political commentator Anatol Țăranu said that a part of the crises are caused by the Moldovan institutions’ incapacity to respond to the current challenges. From this viewpoint, it is evident that the institutional crisis is of internal origin. There are also a multitude of crises caused by reasons and conditions that mostly didn’t depend on the government. Firstly, it goes to the pandemic crisis and also to the war in Ukraine, which generated a multitude of social and economic problems, the refugee crisis, etc. “Furthermore, it also goes to the Republic of Moldova’s capacity to respond to the challenges related to the war, to strengthen its national security. We have problems here too,” stated Anatol Țăranu, Moldova’s former Ambassador to Russia.

According to him, the energy crisis also seriously affected Moldova’s economy and the social state of the population. This crisis generated price rises, affected the financial system of the Republic of Moldova that now has the highest rate of inflation in Europe. The latest data show that inflation didn’t stop and already exceeded 30%. This is extremely worrisome as the citizens are seriously affected.

“This amalgam of crises that hit the Republic of Moldova and not only us, as we only a small part of that enormous area that was struck by these crises, surely has a serious impact on the lives of people. Any government, either pro-European or less pro-European, should find solutions to respond to these crises. For now, the government in the Republic of Moldova copes more or less. We do not have large-scale public demonstrations,” stated the political commentator.

Director of the Association “Initiative for Peace” Alexandru Flenchea considers the situation of 2022 is similar to that of the summer of 1992. Thirty years ago, there was a war in the Republic of Moldova. Now a war is taking place in the neighboring country. Among other similarities are the energy crisis, the gas crisis, the economic and social shocks deriving from the transition to the market economy in the 1990s. Now Moldova faces a wide range of social effects of the economic, food and energy crises.

“There are many elements that are similar, if not identical to the developments witnessed 30 years ago. Surely, this state of affairs is frustrating at least. After 30 years, we returned to where we started. We realize that things go wrong, that the immediate reasons that led to the crisis of 1992 and those that caused the current crises are different. Now, we generally feel the effects of a global crisis and the Republic of Moldova is the country that is situated the closest to the epicenter of the events, except for Ukraine, which is the victim of the Russian Federation’s aggression,” stated Alexandru Flenchea, ex-Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration.

According to him, there is great interdependence between the current crises as they fuel each other. “The global economic crisis began in 2020, together with the COVID-19 pandemic. Exactly when mankind started to overcome the economic recession, Russia launched its aggression against Ukraine. The effects of the war started to be felt. The war not only hindered the overcoming of the global economic recession, but further expanded all the crises. There is practically no country that hasn’t been hit. For the people of the Republic of Moldova, I think the most important thing is the fact that the cumulative impact of these internal and external crises ultimately causes profound economic and social effects. This is what each person apart feels and I want to note that the Moldovans are for now apathetic about these crises,” said Alexandru Flenchea.

The Agency published 4 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 13.07.22, „ EU candidate status in times of cumulative, internal and external crises. IPN debate”-  https://www.ipn.md/en/eu-candidate-status-in-times-of-cumulative-internal-and-external-8004_1091028.html ; “Dionis Cenușă: We are witnessing a government legitimacy crisis”;  https://www.ipn.md/en/dionis-cenusa-we-are-witnessing-a-government-legitimacy-crisis-8004_1091029.html ; „ Alexandru Flenchea: We need to redefine ourselves as a country and understand what we can offer our neighbors - https://www.ipn.md/en/alexandru-flenchea-we-need-to-redefine-ourselves-as-a-country-8004_1091036.html ; „ Anatol Țăranu: Romanian identity of Moldovans takes country to Europe”; https://www.ipn.md/en/anatol-taranu-romanian-identity-of-moldovans-takes-country-to-europe-8004_1091037.html .

Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN