After the Republic of Moldova detached itself from the former USSR, many Moldovans experienced difficulties in reaching Europe while looking for a better life. Most of the times, they had to cross the borders of European states in a clandestine way, at night, through forests and other dangerous places, guided by profiteers who asked a lot of money from them for their services without offering many guarantees, including for life. In those times, legal circulation of people, goods and money between Moldova and the European states was almost inexistent. It happened so primarily because there were no developed relations between the Republic of Moldova and the European states and there were no communication ways through which to promote these relations, including roads, transport routes and other infrastructure elements. Since then, many things have improved in terms of relations and communications. At the current stage, the Connecting Europe Facility comes to offer Moldova and the Moldovans opportunities for benefitting from all the relations and communication ways of the EU now and in the future. The experts invited to a public debate hosted by IPN discussed the Facility and what Moldova can gain from this mechanism.
IPN project’s permanent expert Igor Boțan said the goal of the interconnection of Europe is to ensure advanced infrastructure in the transport, energy and digital sectors, which is essential for a well-connected and integrated Union in which the European citizens and enterprises can fully benefit from free movement on the single market. The Trans-European Networks are also strategic for the creation of the energy union and a common digital market and for the development of sustainable transport ways.
“It was established that without the European Union’s support, the private operators and the national authorities do not have sufficient stimuli to implement large-scale crossborder infrastructure projects and interoperable systems and services at European level. That’s why the interconnection of Europe is very important. The Connecting Europe Facility supports projects with high value added at European level and contributes to the mobilization of additional investments from other sources, and ensures a synergy effect for the development of the European Union,” noted Igor Boțan.
He said the absorption of financial resources allocated from the EU funds is a very important aspect for the Europeans integration process. The absorption of funds depends on the regional economic capacities, while the regional absorption capacities in the EU depend on the planning of the cohesion policy. “That’s why it is very important for the influence of the funds received for economic development to take the regional aspect into account. The second very important aspect is that the European funds’ influence on the process of convergence between the EU countries should also be taken into account. The third important thing is the capacity of a particular country to assimilate these funds,” explained the expert.
Alina Dandara, MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity, said the bill to ratify the agreement on the Republic of Moldova’s participation in the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, which was signed on May 9, was adopted by Parliament last week. Under the document, the Republic of Moldova will have access to a number of non-reimbursable funds to finance infrastructure projects in the transport, energy and digital fields. “This is a direct opportunity that comes to improve the life of our citizens against a positive social background as the program can facilitate the development of projects of common interest for improving transport, for increasing energy security, etc.” stated Alina Dandara.
According to her, the program enables the EU to extend the Trans-European Networks so as to develop the European single market and increase energy efficiency at European level and Moldova will also benefit from this, as will Ukraine that needs the “solidarity lanes” to be strengthened.
The MP noted that Moldova is the only non-EU state that can access such funds by participating as an observer in this Facility, without the right to vote. “For participation, the Republic of Moldova will pay an insignificant fee, in two installments. This represents a very small percentage of the Republic of Moldova’s GDP and against market prices. The funds that will come from the European Union are much larger than this small fee,” said Alina Dandara.
Mihai Mogîldea, executive vice director of the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), said the Republic of Moldova will stand to gain from interconnection with the EU member states and this is the goal of this program. It goes primarily to interconnection with EU member state Romania, which is the only way of access to other regions of Europe. Respectively, the realization of the potential of interconnection with Romania in the transport and energy sectors should be a priority as this is ultimately physical interconnection.
“As regards infrastructure, transport, we see that three projects have been already approved, for interconnection with localities situated on the Moldovan-Romanian border. It goes to three customs posts – Albița-Leușeni, Ungheni and Giurgiulești – which will benefit from funds for the infrastructure within the perimeter of these checkpoints to be modernized and traffic to be eased,” explained Mihai Mogîldea.
“At energy level, it’s clear that out goal today is to ensure energy interconnection with Romania by building high-voltage power lines so as to bring electrical energy from Romania – a project that should be completed until 2025. I hope the money will be enough for the project to be completed in optimal timeframes. This will also be a rather serious challenge. I also think we should invest more in renewable energy, in aligning the Republic of Moldova to the European Union’s goals of climate change adaptation.”
The IPRE expert noted that there are a number of opportunities that can be taken in the digital sphere. Reducing the roaming charges is a priority and funds from the EU’s digital programs will be allocated for the purpose. It’s clear that investments in digital services will be necessary and the experience of the European countries will be very useful to Moldova. It also comes to cybersecurity that also necessitates European investments. “The program will definitely offer opportunities for all these things to generate especially impact for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova,” said Mihai Mogîldea.
The public debate entitled “What can Moldova gain from Connecting Europe Facility if...?” was the 284th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany”.
