The new agenda on the Moldova-EU Association Agreement (AA) stipulates the general priorities for the 2021-2027 and practically coincides with the period for implementing the budget of the new Multiannual Financial Framework, the so-called budget of the European Union. This is positive as there can be congruence between the EU-Moldova dialogue and the support mechanisms, Mihai Mogîldea, team leader, the Europeanization Program of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, (IPRE) stated in IPN’s public debate titled “About what new EU-Moldova dialogue is, how it develops and what chances it has.
“The agenda sets down the general priorities. If we make a comparison, this is similar to the government agenda in which the Republic of Moldova specifies the government priorities. The next is the national action plan for implementing the Association Agreement that at national level coincides with the Government’s action plan. So, the plan for implementing the Association Agreement stipulates the actions that need to be taken in each area, what results are wanted, what indicators need to be achieved and how the obtained results will be measured. We have these elements that are indeed fundamental for the dialogue with the European Union. On the other hand, it is very good that the political changes in the Republic of Moldova occurred before the adoption of the new Association Agenda as the ambitions of the current government in relation to the European Union can be found, to a particular extent, in this new Association Agenda that was generally negotiated with the EU,” said the representative of IPRE.
According to him, the adoption of new plan for implementing the AA does not mean its high-quality implementation as Moldova had serious shortcomings in this regard. “Such documents should make the government more responsible so that it brings benefits to the citizens. We are yet at the stage when the content of these documents should be made public. Evidently, this will happen in the immediate period as particular aspects are not made known so as not to affect the negotiations between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova. Furthermore, there are rather technical aspects that cannot be made public before a consensus with the EU is reached,” stated Mihai Mogîldea.
He noted it is important for these two documents to make the government responsible so that it delivers reforms to the citizens and these produce the impact expected by the people.
The public debate “About what new EU-Moldova dialogue is, how it develops and what chances it has” was staged by IPN News Agency in the framework of the project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
