Christoph Zöpel: The European Commission must not treat the Moldovan population as hostages

Moldova’s European future is not the future of the state and of its leaders, but of its people, and the European Commission should not treat the Moldovan population as hostages of the government, of the Transnistrian conflict and of other existing problems, chairman of the Socialist International Committee on the Economy, Social Cohesion and the Environment and former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany Christoph Zöpel told a roundtable meeting. According to Christoph Zöpel, the European Neighbourhood Policy must give a roadmap concerning the European integration to Moldova. The fact that Moldova is a small country would be an advantage for the accession to the EU if compared with Ukraine for instance. The German official said that the Government should more actively engage in promoting Moldova’s image abroad. The Moldovan Embassies in the EU member states should establish ties with economic entities from these countries and convince them to come and invest in Moldova. In the large European states, many people do not know about Moldova. This can be an advantage, but also a disadvantage, Zöpel said. The cited source stressed that the government should guarantee the observance of human rights and of the supremacy of law in compliance with the European standards. He said that it should cooperate with all the local public administrations, regardless of the fact who heads them - representatives of the ruling party or of other parties. Zöpel considers that Moldova’s integration into the EU must not depend on the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict. The former German Democratic Republic united with the Federal Republic of Germany when it was a member of the EU already, the cited source said.