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Abstract
Moldova is complying with the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the new framework of partnership with neighbouring countries that was created by the European Union (EU) in 2005. The ENP prompted in the partner countries a process of convergence with EU rules. The ENP‐promoted legislation convergence in the Eastern partner countries can therefore be a first step to the enlargement of the EU to Former Soviet Union Republics (FSURs) such as Moldova, even if it is generally understood that such enlargement is not yet on the cards. In this article we analyse whether the ENP‐prompted process of convergence of the Moldovan legislation with the EU rules (law, institutions, and practices) increases this country’s chances of EU membership. We argue that this process of convergence is in many ways similar to compliance with the Copenhagen convergence criteria. Moldova might be able to achieve EU candidate status sooner than is currently expected.
Acknowledgements
The research for this paper was made possible by a grant of the European Commission – Jean Monnet Project, ‘Transnational Network on Euroisation and Democratisation at the Eastern Borderline of the European Union’.
Notes
1. When we refer to the FSURs, in this paper, we refer to those FSURs that are not yet in the EU.
2. European Council in Copenhagen, 21–22 June 1993, Conclusions of the Presidency, SN 180/93.
3. The period of implementation of EURMAP was fixed for three years, so that the date of 22 February 2008 is considered to be the date when EURMAP expires.
4. In late June 2007, the authors conducted 16 face‐to‐face interviews with key informants in Chisinau, Moldova. The interviews were based on a semi‐structured list of questions. The interviews lasted on average 80 minutes. Key informants were represented a number of government institutions (ministries of finance, foreign affairs, the central bank, parliamentarians) as well as international organization offices (European Delegation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, International Office of Migration, the United Nations Development Office, the World Bank), and with local print, radio, and television media. The authors wish to thank the interviewees for generously giving their time and sharing their insights.
5. European Commission, 2006 Report and interviews with key informants, June 2007.
6. Nicu Popescu, Perspectives, Citation2006 : Outsourcing’ de facto Statehood: Russia and the Secessionist Entities in Georgia and Moldova, June 2006: ‘Russia has been heavily involved in the conflicts. Assessments of its role in the conflicts vary, but none disputes the fact that Russia plays an important role in the conflict regions’.
7. On 22 July 2008, the Ukrainian foreign affairs minister announced that the EU General Affairs Council decided that a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) will be signed between Ukraine and the EU on 8 September 2008 in Evian, France (see ‘New enhanced agreement between Ukraine and EU called Agreement on Association, UNIAN Press, http://www.unian.net/eng/news/news-263031.html); German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that ‘the Federative Republic of Germany, may imagine that [a new agreement with Ukraine] means not only an agreement about enhanced cooperation, but also as an agreement on associated membership’ (‘New agreement between Ukraine and EU might be viewed as agreement on Ukraine’s associated membership, Merkel says’, Interfax‐Ukraine, Kyiv, 21 July 2008).
8. EU–Moldova Action Plan (EURMAP), Brussels, 22 February 2005, 3.
9. Ibid., 3.
10. Ibid., 1.
11. EURMAP targets: trade access to the European market through the trade preference scheme known as GSP+ (Generalised System of Preferences Plus), autonomous trade preferences (EU lifts trade tariffs for certain Moldovan products), technical support for improvements to health and phyto‐sanitary systems, visa facilitation and readmission and an EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) ensuring transparent.
12. ‘Moldova has been a member of the Council of Europe since 1995 and is still subject to a monitoring procedure’ (Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, 2007, 2).
13. ‘Low administrative capacity and awareness, however, particularly within law enforcement bodies are significant obstacles’ (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, Republic of Moldova, Country Strategy Paper 2007–2013, 6).
14. Ibid., 5.
15. Moldova ratified most of the international human rights instruments, and is committed to reinforcing democratic institutions to guarantee them (ibid., 6).
16. EURMAP, 3.
17. Ibid.,1.
18. Republic of Moldova, Country Strategy Paper 2007–2013, 7.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid.
21. Yalta 2003 CIS Summit, where Moldova was not invited in the new Trade Agreement between Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
22. European Parliament Delegation to the EU–Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, 2007, 2.
23. After 50 years of separation, thousands of Romanian and Moldovans met on the Prut river banks and symbolically threw flowers on the water.
24. From 1942 until 1990, villages have been split in two, separating de facto families (see the case of Costuleni and Macaresti villages in Liviu Iolu, ‘Podul de flori’ s‐a prabusit pe Prut’, Evenimentul Zilei 5039, 30 December 2006).
25. The latest declaration of the Romanian President Basescu regarding the subject was in Seoul on 11 September 2008, when, expressing a wish to the hosts that the two Koreas would unite, he drew a parallel with Romania and the Republic of Moldova, declaring that when the Republic of Moldova joins the European Union, the Romanians will have a united country – an ambiguous statement that could can be interpreted as implying that Romanians from both rivers of the Prut will live in the same political space, the EU.
26. According to authors’ interviews in Chisinau, 2007.
27. Russian support in the form of political endorsement and benevolent media coverage in Russia is indeed necessary for the communists to win: some say Putin and Medvedev are very popular in Moldova, and that as much as 90% of the Moldovan population watches the first channel of the Russian public television (V. Lupan, ‘Moldova – balet intre Rusia si Romania’, Revista 22, no. 958, 15–21 July 2008, An XV), which ranks among the top three most trusted sources of information – along with the Metropolitan Church of Moldova and the EU institutions, and ahead of Moldovan institutions and the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, associated with Romania (58.9%) (Report co‐authored and published by three think tanks: IDIS Viitorul, EURASIA, Axa. 2008, National Public Opinion Study on Progress towards European Integration and the European Neighbourhood Policy Action Plan).
28. Ibid., 30.
29. Ibid., 22.
30. This treaty is expected to be signed before the 2009 elections.
31. ‘Chisinau often accuses Bucharest of funding the opposition and the Romanian Orthodox Church of wanting to set up a bishopric in Moldova, where the Russian Orthodox Church predominates. Most of all, Voronin is annoyed by Romanian President Traian B[a]esescu’s claim that there is only one people in the two countries – Romanians. But when relations between Moldova and Russia were cool and Moldova was financially straitened, Besescu came to Voronin’s aid. Now that Voronin is once again welcome at the Kremlin, he is freer in expressing his true opinion of Romania’ (‘Moldova squabbles with Romania, cozies with Russia’, Kommersant, 14 December 2007).
32. Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, Honouring of obligations and commitments by Moldova, Doc. 11374, 14 September 2007, 1.
33. European Parliament Delegation to the EU–Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee 2007, Brussels, 1–2 October 2007, 2.
34. Republic of Moldova, Country Strategy Paper 2007–2013, 7.
35. ‘[W]hy not our neighbour, Romania, which is already close to EU membership? We will be neighbours with an EU member. Why not include this country in the negotiations party?’ (V. Voronin, ‘Moldova: President calls for Western, Romanian involvement in Transdniester’, Radio Free Europe interview, Prague, 8 February 2005).
36. Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, 2007, 1.
37. Kommersant interview, reproduced in Tiraspol Times, 11 March 2008, ‘Vladimir Voronin: “I can no longer hide my optimism”’.
38. Ibid.
39. The removal of the 14th Russian Army involves a huge social undertaking (social coverage, pensions) which, for now, no government wants to assume.
40. Minzarari Citation2007a.
41. Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe 2007, 2.
42. Report co‐authored and published by three think tanks: EURASIA, IDIS VIITORUL, AXA, April 2008, 4.
43. In its attempts to keep former satellites within Russia’s influence, the Yedinaya Rossiya [United Russia] Party of Vladimir Putin even went on to propose a joint economic area – a kind of a Eastern European union to include Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Turkey, Moldova, and some other countries, aside of integration forms as CIS and GUAM active in the region. The Stolichniye Novosti [Capital City News] newspaper of Moscow quoted Russian State Duma deputy Sergei Markov as saying that such an economic area should be analogous to the European Union, and should use an analogous organization model (Yedinaya Rossiya proposing to create an alternative to EU, Infotag, 7 August 2008).
44. Report co‐authored and published by three think tanks: EURASIA, IDIS VIITORUL, AXA, April 2008.
