Unsurprisingly, the high-level political dialogue with Brussels has been resumed quickly by Prime Minister Sandu. The credibility of the new government has removed any old barrier. The composition of the government, made up of diaspora professionals and civil society, and for the first time dominated by women, had an additional positive effect, writes political scientist Dionis Cenuşa in an analitycal article for the IPN Agency.
Although the EU has never ruled out that it will cooperate with a government, wich includes the Democrats, the establishment of the coalition between ACUM and the Socialists has been a relief for Europeans in many ways, comments the political scientist.
On the one hand, he opinates that the European institutions can re-establish and deepen the dialogue at a political and technical level without Democrats more quickly and easily than with those in power. EU's experience with this party was probably the most difficult in the region, and it also ended with attacks on the image of the European institutions, concludes Dionis Cenuşa.
He adds that the government of Maia Sandu is practically entirely made up of pro-European supporters, which eliminates any ideological misunderstandings they might have encountered if the Socialists occupied other ministries than the Defense ones.
On the other hand, writes Dionis Cenuşa, the EU realizes that Maia Sandu advocates for transparency and co-operation with civil society, previously scared, regularly by Vladimir Plahotniuc's regime.
But in order to rely on a beneficial influence of civil society, political partisanship in favor of the new government is to be abolished as soon as possible, emphasizes the political sctientist.
According to him, this can be a useful preventive measure against deviations that may occur for various reasons, such as seeking consensus with the Socialists on sensitive items. At the same time, a vigilant civil society will become an additional filter to assess the reforms included in the European agenda.
Dionis Cenuşa believes that the main objective for the moment in the EU-Moldova relationship is to provide macro-financial assistance worth EUR 100 million, for which a technical condition has been fulfilled - re-launching the relationship with IMF and the agreement for USD 46.5 million tranche to be released.
He recalls the conditions under which the assistance was suspended, and that sometime before the vote was canceled at the local elections in Chisinau in the summer of 2018, the EU was on the brink of granting the first installment already in the fall of the same year.
Back then, the government (Prime, 30 March 2018) and civil society (CPR, 6 February 2019) had contradictory views on the quality of implementation of the conditions, underlines the political scientist.
Given that the current parliament cancels problematic legislation (citizenship against investments, mixed voting system, etc.), both political and sectoral preconditions are increasingly meeting the commitments to the EU, concludes Dionis Cenuşa.