At the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit of November 29, 2013, Moldova will enter a new stage of relations with the European Union. What will it bring and how will it influence the life of the Moldovans from the country and from abroad? What will each of us gain and what should we do for this benefit to become possible? How will the new conditions affect Moldova’s relations with other countries? The IPN Agency aims to look for answers to these and other questions worrying society, together with you, within the series of articles “Association with the EU to everyone’s understanding

Moldova fulfilled most of the conditions imposed by the European Commission for signing the Association Agreement and for abolishing the visa regime. Work is yet to be done to reform the justice sector. The legal framework complies with the European legislation, but the new laws must be implemented, while corruption must be removed from the state institutions and from society, said expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative (IDIS) “Viitorul” Cornel Ciurea. Any corruption-related scandal causes dissatisfaction in Brussels and casts doubt on the European integration prospects.

According to the expert, the Transnistrian region may also be an obstacle as it is not clear how it will be presented in this agreement at a time when it does not meet the European standards and is against the association with the European Union.

Asked what can hamper the initialing of the agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, Cornel Ciurea said there is a risk that the refusal to initial it will be explained in a technical way: “you didn’t sufficiently fight corruption” or “we cannot initial the whole agreement, but only half of it as the other half hasn’t been translated”.

Without an Association Agreement with the EU, initialed at the Vilnius Summit and signed in 2014, Moldova’s European course will be difficult “The Government will be deprived of the only electoral argument that can keep it floating. Early elections may even take place and the opposition that is against the European integration may come to power,” said Cornel Ciurea.

The expert considers that the population cannot help the administration to avoid the possible obstacles to signing the Association Agreement as the people weren’t informed about the prospects of this process. The voters will show their indignation or satisfaction in the elections, where the politicians will get grades for their work.

Elena Bolshenko, IPN