The European Union undoubtedly provides important benefits, but has also minuses that cannot be neglected, Romanian university professor Adrian Stroea stated in his communication on the EU from pragmatic, non-idyllic perspective at an international roundtable meeting entitled “EU diplomacy in the Eastern Partnership area: accomplishments, difficulties, problems”. The event was staged by the Public Administration Academy of the Republic of Moldova and centered on the EaP as a project of accession to the EU of the Eastern European states that signed Association Agreements with the EU.
Speaking about the EU’s benefits, Adrian Stroea underlined the importance of providing European funds for developing infrastructure, the agricultural sector (by subsidies), projects in the research and innovation sector, etc. Such funds were successfully invested in the Romanian industry and generated jobs and high performance products.
At the same time, professor Adrian Stroea noted that the EU is not only a political and economic union, but is also a supranational union that implies massive transfer of sovereignty. In many EU member states, there is opposition to the more accentuated subordination of national sovereignty to the EU authorities. “Entry into the EU implies integration into a tough market economy dominated by corporations. This often leads to the bankruptcy of national business entities that lose competition to Western corporations.”
As to the situation in the Republic of Moldova, Adrian Stroea said the lack of solid national capital in Moldova is a handicap in the socioeconomic development from the perspective of an EU member. For Moldova to successfully integrate into the EU, it must get ready also by strengthening its businesses so that these can compete with Western corporations. Even if Moldova joins the EU, its population will not start to live better the next day.
“Not few of the EU directives exceed the Christian and moral beliefs on such subjects as social education in schools, the rights of LGBT persons..., which runs counter to the values of EU societies that center on the traditional values, both in states that are mostly Catholic or mostly Christian-Orthodox,” stated the professor.
The international roundtable meeting titled “EU diplomacy in the Eastern Partnership area: accomplishments, difficulties, problems” involved representatives of academia from Moldova, Romania and Ukraine.
