Both the Democratic Party and the Party of Socialists in different periods asserted that Moldova should become a bridge between the East and the West, but the things discussed in the public sphere, which is part of the political struggle between the two parties, are different, the standing expert of IPN’s project Igor Botan said in the public debate “Eastern model and Western model for Moldova: differences, advantages, disadvantages. Chances of “Third Way” that was staged by IPN News Agency and Radio Moldova.
The expert stated that the Republic of Moldova oscillates between the East and the West and this is a cross that the Moldovan people carry in virtue of a number of circumstances. Being a small state, Moldova is actually an island between two tectonic plates: the European one and the Eurasian one and when these plates oscillate, the small island has to react or can be even crushed. That’s why it is somehow understandable why Moldova oscillates between the East and the West. The expert made reference to a number of official acts signed by the governments that ruled in the independence period. In general, these show that the orientation was 60% to 40% in favor of the European development model.
“However, regrettably, during the last eight years those who promised the integration into the EU didn’t manage to produce many interesting things and what they did led to a reduction in the European integration support level from 70% to 40%. “After the citizens were disappointed, how can one make them believe in the integration into the EU so that this idea is not challenged?” asked Igor Botan.
The expert reminded that on January 7 this year, the chairman of the Democratic Party Vlad Plahotniuc published an article on the website of the American TV channel Foxnews, where he said that Moldova aims to become a bridge between the East and the West. A month ago, President Igor Dodon said we should bring the geopolitical discussions to an end. “What should we understand of these statements?” asked the expert, noting that such a state of affairs keeps the country on the third way, of stagnation, because it is one thing to say that you want in the EU and it is another thing to meet the EU standards.
“The Moldovan model is the one we see daily and during about six years we have followed the third way, which is we stagnate. We should be serious. The CIS was the first political community we joined. We then obtained a Free Trade Agreement with the EU, but do not have a similar agreement with the CIS. As we embraced the European standards, Russia punished us with bans,” stated Igor Botan.
He also referred to an article of the Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, which was published earlier. In this, Putin explained that he wants to develop Russia by the European model, but with several poles. “In the Eurasian Union we have presidential regimes. In the EU, we practically have no presidential regimes. It is a model that faces many problems, but this develops and is attractive to people and the inflow of migrants in the EU proves this. Ultimately, Putin said that if he manages to build the Eurasian Union, he will sign a Free Trade Agreement with the EU. Moldova insisted on the implementation of the Association Agreement and DCFTA with the EU not accidentally as we could later find ourselves together with Russia in a Europe stretching from Vladivostok to Lisbon. But Russia imposed bans on us namely because we borrowed the European standards,” stated the expert.
Igor Botan noted that before this article of the Russian President was published, the agenda of the Moldovan government stipulated the integration into the Eurasian Customs Union. ”And then, namely the current President Igor Dodon tried to persuade us that it is not serious to join the Customs Union by bypassing Ukraine. Now he changed his rhetoric, but we have to maintain relations both with the CIS and with the EU, with agreements in the CIS and with bans. We do not have economic growth and the European officials told us very clearly to implement the Association Agreement and calm down as it is a long way to Moldova’s integration into the EU. The Europeans share everything with us, except for the institutions,” he said.
The public debate “Eastern model and Western model for Moldova: differences, advantages, disadvantages. Chances of “Third Way” was the 77th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are organized with support from the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
