The European Assembly Moldova staged on May 21 was a follow-up to another three national assemblies held in 1989, 1990, 1991, in situations that were very critical for the Republic of Moldova. “We reached again a crossroads after Russia started its war of aggression against Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova as a result was granted the EU candidate status. Normally, such a moment should be marked by such an assembly, a follow-up to the three national assemblies we held when the Law on the functioning of the spoken languages was adopted, when the way in which the Republic of Moldova was to develop further was decided and that ended with the decelerating of independence on August 27, 1991,” the permanent expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in the public debate “Moldova at a crossroads: EU and its alternative?”.
The expert noted that now that the EU candidate status was granted, the authorities aim to achieve the objective of joining the EU until 2030. From this viewpoint, that assembly is probably justified. He was skeptical about the necessity of holding such an event, but after he attended the rally yesterday, he reached the conclusion that it was useful as the emotional moment was an important one.
According to Igor Boțan, such meetings should not be aimed at persuading the EU as it was primarily important for the Republic of Moldova. Opinion polls have constantly showed, for at least four years, that more than half of the citizens in Moldova are for European integration.
The expert underlined the importance of the diaspora’s involvement in this event. “We know from official data of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that about one third of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova with the right to vote, almost 1 million citizens, are outside the country and we convinced ourselves in national presidential and parliamentary elections that already one fourth of these take part in elections and 93% of them vote for pro-European parties. Based on the election results and opinion polls, we can say that at least two thirds of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova are firm supporters of the European integration,” stated Igor Boțan.
He noted that a national idea for a period of seven or ten years was formulated at the assembly for the Moldovans to make effort and become authentic Europeans in business, in behavior, in attitudes. “We should start to think about the economic niche where Moldova is very good and which would ensure decent living conditions as the Republic of Moldova is a small country that does not have potential to focus on everything. We all see that from the viewpoint of education, of vocational education, we lag behind. We have a lot of work to do. All these problems should be acknowledged,” concluded Igor Boțan.
The public debate entitled “Moldova at a crossroads: EU and its alternative?” was the 283rd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
