The Republic of Moldova does not have a very clear European integration strategy, besides the Association Agreement with the European Union, which is a very technical document. It is important to have a Government’s clear, simple and updated view on how it sees the European integration and how this can be achieved, besides the technical documents with the European Union that it already developed and is implementing, Dionis Cenușa, a political scientist, researcher at the Institute of Political Sciences at Liebig-Justus University in Giessen, Germany, stated in a public debate titled “to shock in Eastern Partnership – EU approach vs. NATO variant” that was held by IPN News Agency.

According to IPN’s senior contributor, the European Union supports the states and does not impose its own agenda. Regrettably, in the Republic of Moldova there is the perception that someone from outside comes to solve Moldovans’ problems. In reality, the political class begs for assistance, even if in an automatic way, when Moldova undertakes what the EU proposes in the region.

In another development, Dionis Cenușa said NATO was created to defend and combine forces to defend each member state.

At the same time, the EU was founded to prevent wars on the European continent and ultimately became a supranational organization with exclusive powers in specific areas. The EU does not yet have military powers. It can support cooperation in the military sector, but does not have such extended powers as NATO. The EU is rather interested in the human, societal aspect, in developing human capital, etc. “The EU ensures integration in areas similar to those of NATO, but chooses a dimension that involves the civilian aspect rather than the military one,” stated the researcher.

He noted that the EU de facto invests in own security by helping the countries in its Eastern neighborhood.

The EU also banks a lot on the interventions of civil society, especially in monitoring within the Eastern Partnership. “In fact, civil society represents the EU’s partner in the EaP countries,” stated Dionis Cenușa.

The debate “Resistance to shock in Eastern Partnership – EU approach vs. NATO variant” was the 148th installment of the debates project “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.