Romania – Moldova partnership for European integration
Period of implementation: December 2009 – September 2010
Despite its European aspirations supported by a solid majority and a governing alliance, the Republic of Moldova, at that time was almost absent from the Brussels agenda. Worse still, many European decision makers considered Moldova as a state located in Russia’s orbit and treat the relationship with Chisinau through this lens, putting the ‘good relations with Moscow’ criteria among the important objectives of the EU – Moldova cooperation. In the long term, this vision is likely to block Moldova in an intermediate area and to incapacitate the reformist efforts made by Moldova’s governments.
In this context, Romania is the only EU member state with a natural interest in maintaining Moldova on the EU agenda, but Romania suffers as a European player from:
a) Lack of experience and capacity to lobby
b) Lack of credibility on this issue, with many Member States being reluctant to Romanian initiatives out of fear of having the EU high-jacked by policies based on identity/feelings criteria.
Donor: Soros Foundation Romania and Soros Moldova