The electoral interest prevailed in the political decisions taken by the government. This sacrificed the opportunity to make corrections in the Moldova-EU relationship with the aim of paving the necessary legal way, even if in a controversial way, for the parliamentary elections of 2019, political pundit Dionis Cenușa said in a feature article for IPN News Agency.

Strengthening of the status of “captured state” is the first failure noted by the expert.

From the unofficial speeches at European level, the recognition of the existence of the “state capture” penetrated the official documents, such as the resolutions of the European legislature.

More exactly, on July 5, 2018, the MEPs underlined the fact that the state institutions in Moldova are in a profound crisis, the Democratic standards are violated and the judiciary fulfils political orders. These are all considered an example of “state capture”.

At a distance of several months, in November 2018, another resolution voted by the largest part of the MEPs noted that Moldova is captured by oligarchic interests and these subdued most of the institutions in the state – from Parliament and justice to the police, public administration and the media.

The freezing of financial assistance is the second failure.

After two years of the restoration of the EU budget support for Moldova that was blocked in 2015 owing to the crisis in the banking system, the subject of stopping of the European assistance owing to the crisis in the banking system was brought again up for discussion. The European institutions specified a number of preconditions for resuming financing, both macro-financial assistance and budget support. The main condition invoked was the conduct of free and fair parliamentary elections.

The breakdown of the conditionality mechanism is the third failure.

According to the author, the Democratic Party neglected Brussels for two times - the first time when it flouted the commitment on the rule of law and the second time when it refused to solve the political crisis caused by annulling the votes of the citizens of Chisinau.

This way, Moldova set a dangerous precedent for other associate countries – Georgia and Ukraine where signs of “state capture” can also be seen, in particular owing to the massive presence of oligarchic groups in the political and public life, concluded Dionis Cenușa.