Even if the EU – Moldova dialogue went through a period of deterioration and detachment on the part of the Moldovan government, several results that positively marked the European integration process in the country can be underlined, political pundit Dionis Cenușa noted in a feature article for IPN News Agency.
According to him, the improvement of knowledge in the EU about the reform agenda in Moldova is the first major accomplishment.
The Moldovan realities were considerably popularized at regional and continental levels. This forced the government to act in a hurry and to make mistakes that could be elucidated by the opposition, the independent media and civil society.
The exactness of the reports compiled by the European institutions increased and these reports contain the drawbacks of the most recent policies of the government. The volume of critical information furnished to Brussels often contradicted the positive version of state of affairs illustrated by the Moldovan authorities. The government’s irascibility owing to the impossibility of controlling external communication could be seen in the accusations of damaging the county’s image in Brussels made against the opposition.
Maintaining of pro-EU sympathies in society regardless of obstacles is the second accomplishment. The maximization of the political conflict between the forces that associate themselves with the EU, the government led by the Democrats and the extraparliamentary opposition created favorable conditions for dissipating the support for the EU. But neither the anti-EU media attacks nor the contradictions between the power and the opposition diminished drastically the pro-European sympathies.
Some of the estimates show these increased in the course of 2018 without being altered by the massive efforts made by President Igor Dodon to solidify contacts with Moscow and the Eurasian Economic Union. Some of the polls reveal the maintaining or even rise in the pro-European sympathies compared with the pro-Eurasian Union ones. Others show a drastic decline of 10% in the number of pro-European sympathizers. However, in none of the cases the public option favorable to the Eurasian Union exceeded the pro-EU one.
Dionis Cenușa noted that the consolidation of exports to the EU was the third accomplishment.
In the course of 2018, exports to the EU rose to about 70% of all the exports. In general, the deliveries to the European consumers increased owing to the reorientation of producing and exporting companies. The geographic proximity and the multiple sociocultural and historical similitudes enabled about half of the Moldovan products supplied to the EU to stop in Romania.
This way, the neighboring country strengthened the position of the main export market for Moldova, while Russia was dispossessed of several trade instruments of influence even if President Igor Dodon is trying to recover them, concluded the expert.