There is a series of politicians in Chisinau who try to hide their own failures for 17 years on the way towards the European integration of our country, stating with envied negligence that Moldova is neither wanted nor expected in the European Union. If we were to follow the logic of those politicians, Moldova should turn itself to the geographical, economic and political space where it is wanted and expected arms open widely, while the economic and political integration is not strictly conditioned by fulfilling some democratic conditions, like the renowned Copenhagen criteria, the fulfillment of which is a must fro the European states willing to join the EU. In the opinion of those politicians, this space is certainly the Community of Independent States (CIS), Moldova being a member of it since 1994. Meanwhile, after 17 years of our country being within the CIS, the position that the EU wouldn’t like us, while the integration within the CIS is our only chance to join the process of global economic integration makes more and more questions in Chisinau. This trend is not by chance at all, if one thinks that now Moldova is still waiting for economic, commercial and political advantages promised within the CIS, especially thinking of the enhancing influence and attraction in terms of politics, economy, society and culture that the EU exerts upon this country, especially after the latter one became its immediate neighbor in the West. In these conditions, it is not surprising to hear in Chisinau more and more often voices to abandon the CIS and to focus exclusively on the effort to join the EU. For the supporters of the last thesis, the CIS and the EU represent two separate integrationist processes, even contradictory, and , as a result Moldova will have to opt, in the long run , for one of those. This vision however is not shared by the pro-CIS politicians from Chisinau, who, realizing the growing weight of the EU in Moldova, lose their strategic option evidently, however they keep trying to make both ends meet. Thus the majority of the pro-CIS politicians support the simultaneous integration of Moldova in the CIS and the EU, because, in their opinion, there are no incompatibilities between those two entities. [Criteria and tools] It is worth to mention that neither the pro-EU, nor the EU+CIS advocates have managed to word solid arguments proving the incompatibility or the compatibility of the CIS and the EU. Both camps are glad to base the pro- or against the CIS options, uttering vague political statements meant to persuade all the Moldovan citizens that: 1) the CIS and the EU objectives are or are not compatible; 2) the democratic values and principles within the CIS correspond or do not with ones from the EU; 3) the Free Trade Agreement signed within the CIS matches or does not match Moldova’s interests to gradually integrate within the economic space of the EU; 4) the CIS is or is not open towards European norms etc. Thus, below we’ll stop at all those four aspects often addressed by our politicians ion their statements concerning the opportunity of getting our or staying in the CIS. Yet this time, we consider it necessary to analyze those aspects, using as tools the arrangements upon which those two integrationist structures base, especially the Minsk accord on the constitution of the Community of Independent States, signed by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus on 8 December 1991 and respectively on the Rome Treaty of 1957 on the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC), the predecessor of the present EU. [EU and CIS objectives] We’ll start to tackle the following question: Are or are not compatible the objectives of the CIS and ones of the EU? As it is known, the major goal of the Rome Treaty of 1957 was to lay the bases of a Union of closer cooperation among the European peoples “decided – as is mentioned in the preamble of the treaty – in insure the economic and social progress of their countries jointly acting to eliminate the barriers dividing Europe”. Unlike the Rome Treaty, the Minsk accord on creating the CIS was conceived by its founding fathers (Belarus, Russia and Ukraine) to dismantle the URSS – then, the most integral and expanded political and economic union in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Consequently, through its contents, the Minsk Accord offered the former Soviet republics the political and legal frames necessary to make a peaceful dismantlement of the USSR, thus avoiding a sudden break, and especially a violent break of the political, economic, social and cultural links existing then among the USSR peoples. E.g.: the signatory sides of the Minsk Accord committed to observe the objectives and the principles of the UN status of the Final Helsinki Act of 1975. [+/- economic integration] Although through the Minsk Accord the signing sides managed to agree on some common cooperation areas, they failed to give the CIS cooperation a dimension of economic integration, as was worded in the case of the Rome Treaty. [5 compulsory questions concerning the compatibility] First it would be timely to ask ourselves if our country can simultaneously integrate in the EU and the CIS, under the circumstances when the last one wants to be distinct political and economic union competing with the EU. Second, as the EU, the CIS implies for the gradual creation of an economic union, consequently, I believe it is necessary ask ourselves if Moldova can be part of two economic unions which imply the creation of two different markets, capitals, services and labors; two separate customs unions; different customs taxes; two different currency unions; two different fiscal systems; two different policies. Third, as the EU experience shows, implementing the common policy is the prerogative of supranational institutions. In the EU case this task belongs to the European Commission. Or, in Moldova persists to integrate into the EU in parallel with its enhancing the integration into the CIS, sooner or later, our politicians will have to answer the following question-dilemma: Can Moldova delegate the same part of its decisional sovereignty to those two competing supranational centers that could take contradictory decisions, if compulsory for this country? Fourth, the integration of a country into the EU happens as that country assimilates the EU legislation counting as many as 80,000 pages and known under the name of “community acquis”. The integration into the EU is accompanied by a similar process of legal assimilation. Consequently, it is timely that our politicians ask themselves now if Moldova has the capacity and the necessary institutional, human and financial resources two sets of different community legislation, which will contain many contradictory provision sin many respects. And not the least, our politicians know very well that the economic integration both in the EU and the CIS is accompanied by political integration, and as a consequence it is the case to ask how they see the integration of this country into two rival political entities. [The practice beats … the democratic grammar] In the opinion of the Chisinau politicians, EU and CIS are not rivals because they ground on the same values and democratic principles found also in the UN status, the Final Helsinki Act or the Conventions on protecting the human rights signed under the aegis of the Council of Europe. Indeed, both the EU and the CIS are based on the adhesion of the member states sharing the same democratic values. However, especially lately the attachment of the CIS countries for the democratic principles is more often doubted, e.g.: the Kazakh president is elected for life; or in the EU the freedom of media is a natural right of citizens, while in Russia the freedom of media is treated by the authorities as rather a political danger for the national security and stability. We cannot consider as democratic the regimes in Belarus, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan or Tajikistan. Most of the CIS leaders are aware of the fact that because of multiple conceptual, structural and democratic deficiencies, and because of the centrifugal processes, the CIS is a dysfunctional entity and it lacks the necessary cohesion to accomplish its major objectives. Moscow itself, through its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, wanted to make its disappointment clear with the CIS, stating in March 2007: “The CIS failed to become an association completely integrated or effective internationally”. Minister Lavrov’s statement is hard to question in the conditions in which, in the experts’ opinion, out of the total accords approved of within the CIS – over 1,600 units – only 10% are viable. [Moldova should be eliminated from the CIS] Although the reasons mentioned above may be enough to realize the imperative of reforming the CIS uttered by many CIS presidents, the Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin is not an exception in this respect. In his opinion, the CIS should be reformed in conformity with the European norms and values. The question is whether the CIS is ready to assimilate those norms and values in the European spirit characteristic of the EU. Or the CIS realities in terms of democratic values rather contradict than confirm the excessive expectations of the Moldovan President. Besides, it seems his wish does not take into consideration art. 11 of the Minsk Accord, mentioning “From the moment of signing this accord it is banned on the territories of the signing states to apply the norms of third states, including the ones of the former USSR”. Consequently the norms of the EU member states are for the CIS states but “norms of the third states”, the implementation of which should be banned within the CIS. [Vladimir Voronin: the CIS is a suitcase without a handle] The CIS’s failure to assert itself as a viable organization has lately been questioned by Ukraine, Georgia, as well as Moldova as to the opportunity of staying in. There doubts in Chisinau as to the cooperation of Moldova within the CIS shared not only by opposition politicians, but also by representatives of the current power, including President Vladimir Voronin. However, as some opposition parties stand for the immediate exit from the CIS, the present government headed by President Vladimir Voronin consider the CIS “a handleless suitcase hard to carry and sorry to be left”. The statement was made namely by President Voronin at the GUAM Summit in Kiev in May 2006 and means the representatives of the present government still hope to reinvigorate the CIS. Still they hesitate to recognize that during their 7 years in power they contributed to undermine the CIS more than any other previous governments. Despite their will, impelled by external and domestic realities, they were forced to place Moldova more on the centrifugal way, which will drive away, gradually but certainly, our country from the CIS space, and will integrate it more into Euro-Atlantic world. For example, despite the pro-CIS discourse of the present Communist government, Moldova continued to deepen its cooperation within the GUAM; the country joined the Stability Pact within the South-Eastern Europe, the Political Cooperation Process in South-Eastern Europe, the Free Trade Agreement in Central Europe (CEFTA). It also signed an individual action plan with NATO and with the EU etc. Through these actions the present Chisinau government fully contributed to undermine the cohesion and the authority of the CIS. That is why including the Chisinau officials in the list of the top grave diggers of the CIS would make much sense. In the vision of some Chisinau opposition politicians, the must of Moldova joining the EU will require to leave the CIS. This assertion is worthy, the experience of a range of EU countries showing that when joining the EU, they had to give up membership in rival economic structures. E.g.: Britain, Denmark, Ireland, Austria, Finland and Sweden left the Free Trade European Association (AELS), while Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria ended their membership in CEFTA. We’ll have to see if Moldova’s membership within the will have the same destiny. Actually the future development of Moldova depends first on ourselves. Meanwhile for many of us, it becomes more and more obvious that Moldova’s advancement on the European path will unavoidably raise the number of incompatibilities with the CIS.