Mihai Mogîldea, team leader at the Institute for European Policy and Reform (IPRE), says an advocacy campaign is needed in order to secure EU candidate country status for Moldova, one that targets both Brussels and Moldova’s population at large.
“Depending on the messages that will come from Brussels after Moldova submits back its (EU membership application) questionnaire, depending on the opinion of the European Commission, on the political opinion of the European Council to be issued in June, we can develop a promotion campaign, an instrument to help us secure candidate country status for the Republic of Moldova”, said the expert during an IPN debate.
Mihai Mogîldea believes that the Moldovan authorities could make a commitment to the citizens to obtain candidate status by 2024 or 2025, “why not?” “Once this status is secured, our country could benefit from more European funds for our economy, social area, infrastructure and so on. We must rely on advocacy activities, to promote our country vision in Brussels, but also we must not forget the internal dimension, to explain to the population the benefits that have already been obtained and that can be obtained in the future”, says the IPRE expert.
The debate focused on the current status of the so-called Associated Trio, a platform through which Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia are supposed to cooperate in their common ambition to achieve European integration. But much like his fellow panelists, Mihai Mogildea thinks that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected relations within the platform.
“Nowadays, the Trio is put on the back burner. Rather, bilateral cooperation between the three states and the European Union is the main course of action now”, says the IPRE expert. According to him, the objectives of the Associated Trio have been “frozen” since the war in Ukraine. This is partly because Ukraine has had higher expectations of Georgia, that it would join the sanctions against Russia, among other things. As for Moldova, according to the expert, we have received mixed messages from Kyiv: although the support offered to the refugees is appreciated, there are also voices that criticize Chisinau’s noninterference approach.
“When it comes to Moldova, my opinion is that these expectations must be reconsidered, given our country’s circumstances (...) When you publicly convey a message of the sort that Moldova is not doing enough for Ukraine and when this message reaches the general public in Moldova, including the thousands of families hosting refugees from Ukraine, a general perception is created that Ukraine does not fully appreciate this support which is ultimately offered by the people of Moldova, not just its authorities”.
But, with or without Ukraine and Georgia, Mihai Mogildea believes that Moldova can now hop on the European integration train now passing through the Western Balkans. “In certain respects, we are doing even better than some Balkan states, and I don’t see why we should wait for the European Union to expand into the Balkans, and only then to come next. We can do it in parallel, really”, the expert thinks.
“The problem then is the political support, which has been announced for the extension to the Western Balkans, but not for the countries of the Associated Trio as well. However, I think that within the EU there is enough support for the Republic of Moldova. I believe that there is a relatively large number of states that are ready to offer this political support for the prospect of Moldova’s EU membership. But it seems that the principle of unanimity that governs decision-making within the EU affects the bloc’s external discourse (...) That is why I believe that we must actively promote at European level the recognition of Moldova’s prospect to become a EU member one day, that is, candidate country status. We have to do it bilaterally with each state”, concluded Mihai Mogîldea, team leader, IPRE.
The debate titled “Associated Trio in new conditions: together and on one’s own” was the 240th installment of the “Political Culture”, run by IPN with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
