IPN analysis: The liberalization of the visa regime between Moldova and the EU and the Crimea crisis are rings of the same chain, no matter how unexpected this idea may seem, not because they took place in the same period of time and directly and significantly influence the Moldovan people’s life, but because they directly and powerfully influence their mentality, options related to their own life and the future development course of the own country..
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At the moment, these two ring-elements – the abolition of the visa requirements for Moldovans and the crisis in Crimea - have the greatest potential to form and strengthen the chain of views and actions concerning the European integration as a national idea.

In Europe on trips and to work

On the one hand, the definitive and irrevocable decision of the EU to allow the Moldovans to travel freely in the near future brings real and immediate, direct and perceptible benefits to the whole society and to every person in particular. A lot was said about the new and important opportunities that the visa-free trips offer to young people, especially students, businessmen, members of families that live in the West and in Moldova on a permanent or temporary basis, tourists and sick persons who need treatment and examinations in specialized medical centers, etc. Nobody can now question them. Out of inertia, those who do not know, the sincere skeptics or those who want to diminish the importance of free movement continue to assert that the visa-free travel does not enable the persons to work and thus this is not a great ‘acquisition’ for the Moldovans. The given assertions contain a great dose of untruth and even ill-faith because the free movement in the European counties in reality creates all the legal conditions for looking for a job and signing an official work contract. All those who looked for a job in the West until now can confirm that the most difficult and dangerous things happen before not after getting a job. The abolition of visas will facilitate the finding of a job without intermediaries, without fear and dangers, including financial, to health and even life, without all kinds of exploitations, including sexual. A legal work contract enables any Moldovan to stay in the EU for more than the 60 days allowed under the liberalized regime. But this is not the most important aspect either.

Mentality forming movement

The most important thing is that the unhindered movement of the Moldovans in the developed part of the world will significantly contribute to opening the eyes, soul and mind to an appropriate lifestyle for the human species, different from that to which we got used, especially in the Soviet period, to standards and game rules formulated and respected by everyone. Such a situation is similar to the experience of those very few Soviet people who had the luck to go abroad and feel the shock of the difference between the official propaganda of the then ruling party and the realities of the Western life. The Western world has its own sins, but our sins, generated by the non-comprehension, non-use and non-observance of these standards and rules that the Western people adopted decades or even centuries ago, are greater and they unjustly make our life more difficult, much more difficult than we deserve, as people. The distance from here up to the change of mentality and geographic and geopolitical priorities is not too great. The distance from here up to the support provided by more and more Moldovans to the national European integration idea is also short.

Visas as a model for European integration

In this sense, the process of obtaining the liberalized visa regime is a model of forming pro-European mentality, with all the inherent elements of a very complex and very difficult and, thus, very natural process. From 2010 until now, this process has seen a wide variety of things - from full support to direct and indirect sabotage, the euphoria of a new idea with expectations and promises of rapid and easy accomplishment. Such an approach could have cost former foreign minister and current Prime Minister Iurie Leanca his post and even his political career, with serious consequences for the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), where he occupies a position of heavyweight. It also saw the state of skepticism, sometimes in triumphal forms, declared by the Democratic Party and its leader Marian Lupu. It saw as well the period of ‘political bargain’ promoted by the former partners of the Alliance for European Integration 1 and 2 in the person of the Liberal Party and its leader Mihai Ghimpu, who wanted the laws requested by the EU to be passed in exchange for the abolition of visas, including the law on equality of chances, but on condition that their colleagues from the government made concessions. The behavior of the parliamentary and extraparliamentary opposition also had an impact on the state of spirit in society, related to the confrontation of the pro-Eastern and pro-Western orientations. Sometimes it had a very powerful effect. 

The PLDM and its leader Vlad Filat showed in a way a more constant attitude on the visa issue. Now that the idea is close to becoming a reality, it is less important whether this behavior was based on the political conviction that the cause or just or, in more difficult periods, on political despair generated by the very difficult situation on other segments of the political life. It counts that a lot of work was done to identify solutions and make reciprocal solutions that were inevitable in the serious political crises faced by the government collation, which could have blown up any noble idea, including concerning the liberalization of the visa regime. But the most important thing is that the idea about visa-free trips succeeded because it was one of the few ideas ever launched by the national political class with a really national value. It really refers to the interests of every citizen of the country. The components of such a value and the general benefits were expressed above. The people understand and accept the costs and risks of an idea if the politicians are able to show its benefits first, even to those who were indifferent and even hostile to the idea. It is a tested model whose implementation should be followed by the implementation of other elements of the general national idea – the European integration of Moldova and its people.  

‘Iron Curtain’ falls again?

By contrast, in the same period the Crimea crisis brought a wave of uncertainty, insecurity and fear in Moldova and every Moldovan is looking for solutions for themselves and for the country that they consider theirs. What happened on the Crimean peninsula of the neighboring country Ukraine, especially what will happen next, reveals real possibilities of returning to the ‘cold war’ principles as a method of world order, if the state of ‘hot war’ is avoided. Unlike the past period of the ‘cold war’ , the liberalization of the visa regime with the EU offers the Moldovan people the chance of choice, the chance of alternative.

Each of us obtained the chance at least of finding refuge in a part of the world where there are no gulags, deportation, forced collectivization and mass famine because the period of international repose came to an end and the world areas will start to be delimited according to such criteria as safety of life and security of person, observance of the human rights, welfare…

It’s time for choice

But it’s harder to obtain personal safety individually, even when there are chances and alternatives. That’s why the country must also find a safer shelter. At this historical stage, there is no other more real and safer shelter than the European integration, as mentality, process and structure. The faster, the better. As it was possible to hasten the liberalization of the visa regime with Moldova in the wake of the developments in Ukraine, the accession to the EU may also take place within a period that nobody could imagine before the Crimea crisis. The European officials the last few days also sent signals in this respect. A real period may be one of 2-3 years or 4 at the most, as it then could be too later for Moldova, for Europe.

These calculations are also based on the internal political opportunities in Moldova and the possible international developments. For example, the post-Soviet Russia has a bellicose behavior once in 5-7 years. This periodicity was typical of the internal wars in the Caucasus and then of the ‘fraternal love’ in the war against Georgia and now against Ukraine. Elementary calculations show that the area of influence that Russia claims openly hasn’t been yet fully obtained. Russia may need several years to diminish the damage that it will inevitably sustain on the international arena and at internal level after it annexes Crimea. On the first occasion, Russia will implement its own invention that it can annex any territory that holds a relevant referendum, including and especially in the presence of Kalashnikov guns. One should not be a prophet to realize that Moldova’s Transnistrian region is at the top of the list. There is a short distance from Tiraspol to Chisinau. It’s time to make a choice and start to put the national idea into practice, don’t you think?

Valeriu Vasilică, IPN