The dialogue between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union has become more intense the past few months. But the post-electoral euphoria of the current government showed that the dialogue with the political players is actually conducted with those from the West only. “We must understand that in fact, the Republic of Moldova is situated in an area on which other players also exert influence, including the Russian Federation, but almost nothing was done in this direction,” the expert stated in IPN’s public debate
“About what new EU-Moldova dialogue is, how it develops and what chances it has”. Victor Stepaniuc said that as the state budget law for 2021 is to be adopted, the meetings of the President with different players, the visit paid by Prime Minister Gavrilița to Brussels focused primarily on this issue.

“As visits were made to the neighboring states and to Brussels, during these ten months the President should have found time to also visit Moscow. Kozak’s visit to Chisinau was a signal, but this is not enough. Our economy, primarily the agrarian sector, the energy sector, is connected with Russia. The problem of the contract for the supply of gas should have been addressed in the period,” stated Victor Stepaniuc. He noted that the President and the current government in general took steps that touched Russia’s interests and he thinks that Russia is bothered. “With Russia, we should discuss in a balanced way. We must call on the government to be more attentive and have a better expertise. The President achieved results, but didn’t do particular things and this will affect the country’s development during the next few months. That’s why 2022 can be a difficult year,” stated the expert.

“Moldovan society is divided. No country in the area has so many division lines. We are too divided. That’s why a pragmatic foreign policy is needed. The foreign policy represents the continuation of the internal policy. In this connection, the government should solve a series of domestic problems, such as the conflict with a part of the teachers (related to COVID-19 tests), improvement of the situation in the health sector and general principles like the observance of the rule of law. We must see how we should develop the country with democratic methods or with aggressive methods. The Moldovans saw a lot of reforms”.

As to the replacement of the prosecutor general by the applied method, Victor Stepaniuc said the future government can say that these are not their prosecutors, those from the Central Election Commission are not theirs as they were named by a party, a half of those from the Constitutional Court are not theirs. The so-called reforms will be this way continued.

Among the many problems that need to be addressed by the government, Victor Stepaniuc mentioned the Transnistrian dispute in which no progress has been made and even tensions appeared there, poor management of the problem of prices of gasoline and diesel fuel, medicines, bread, etc. “There is no control over prices. The President and the Prime Minister should visit the country’s districts and see what’s going on in each area,” he noted.

The public debate “About what new EU-Moldova dialogue is, how it develops and what chances it has” was staged by IPN News Agency in the framework of the project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.