The leader of the People’s Party of the Republic of Moldova (PPRM) Alexandru Oleinic said the Association Agreement with the EU is a document of policies and commitments in different areas and Moldova’s European future depends on their implementation. But it seems that the country makes no headway or even shows signs of regression, if analyzing the progress made in the European integration process. In an interview, Alexandru Oleinic said not the signing of the Association Agreement, but its implementation is important, IPN reports.
“If we refer to the benefits, theoretically we can speak about our products’ access to the EU market, including the gradual liberalization of trade in goods and services, reduction in customs duties, abolition of quantitative restrictions and adjustment of Moldova’s legislation to the EU’s,” said the politician. He added that for the Moldovan goods to reach the European market, they must meet the European quality standards. Investments and a civilized partnership between the state institutions and the business community are needed for Moldova to have a functional economy.
“According to the monitoring reports on the Moldova – EU Plan of Action, namely the chapter on the justice sector for whose reformation the EU pledged to allocate €60 million, insignificant progress was made,” stated Alexandru Oleinic. According to him, not much was also done to combat corruption. The corruption perception index in Moldova continues to be high, while opinion polls show that over 88% of the people are not satisfied with the actions taken by the country’s administration to fight corruption.
As to the human rights and fundamental freedoms and the solving of the Transnistrian conflict, it seems that the current government suffered failure, considers the leader of the PPRM. “The Transnistrian conflict settlement resulted in the impossibility of continuing the talks in the 5+2 format. The government also made no progress in terms of people’s welfare,” said Alexandru Oleinic.
The politician said he enumerated these weak points of Moldova not in order to minimize the importance of the pace that the country is to take soon, but for fear that the current government may profit from the political context, without offering the people real European integration benefits. The fact that the authorities pretend to be making effort to improve the living standards can generate opposition to the European integration option.
