CRPE policy brief 34, August 2014, Authors: Ludmila Gamurari, Cristian Ghinea
The Republic of Moldova recently signed the Association Agreement with the EU, closely followed by a detailed Association Agenda, which comes with concrete steps and conditionalities in the future dialogue between Chisinau and Brussels. The current paper discusses the most recent evolutions of the anticorruption institutions in Moldova, which owe a lot to EU`s influence. We pay specific attention to the justice reforms chapters in the Agenda and we conclude with recommendations for the EU to continue to pay attention to corruption in Moldova, but address it in a more coherent manner.
Whilst Moldova is a case study for the potential transformative power of the EU in its vicinity, the country has no real membership perspective but remains bold in its pursuit of an EU future. Moldova is therefore the most advanced in the association process among the Eastern Partnership countries. It is not easy for the local elite to support institutions which at the end of the day could threatened their fortunes and even freedom. The anticorruption constituency is currently weak in Moldova but it exists and the EU has an essential role in tipping the balance to empower the reformists in the Moldovan society: media, NGOs, technocrats and selected politicians.
The policy brief can be found here.
This Policy Brief is published in the framework of the EU-Moldova Think Tank Dialogue, a project financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania through its Official Development Assistance Programme, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – the Bratislava Regional Centre. The project is implemented by a consortium of organisations, including the Romanian Centre for European Policies (CRPE) in Bucharest and its Moldovan Branch in Chisinau; the European Policy Centre in Brussels; and the Foreign Policy Association in Chisinau.