Relationship between Moldova and European Union

Abstract

The Economist recently published an article on Moldova entitled "the country that Europe forgot" describing the tiny Republic which, due to an unhappy combination of economic, political and geopolitical factors, is the "last in the queue for love and attention". Such statements seem to find an echo in EU's policy towards Moldova. In fact, since 2004, when the EU came up with a new policy to deal with its neighbors, Moldova found itself amongst a group of countries ranging from Morocco to Azerbaijan, which had a very dim or no prospect of joining the EU.

It was in fact explicitly stated in the newly born "European Neighborhood Policy" (ENP) that it was designed as a distinct instrument from the enlargement process . My aim in this paper is to question the adequacy of the ENP as the framework for the relation between the EU and Moldova. My argument will be that the ENP is not doing justice to Moldova's aspirations of becoming a member of the EU, and thereby is undermining the impact that the EU could have on Moldova's reform process that would be accelerated if it included the country in the Stabilization and Association Process.

In the first part of my essay, I will outline the relationship between Moldova and the EU since the collapse of the Soviet Union until its inclusion in the ENP, to highlight that the EU has shown very little interest for the tiny Republic, and thus missed an opportunity to give Moldova support in the enlargement process. I will then move on to assess the relevance and impact of the ENP framework for Moldova, highlighting the fact that it is largely asymmetric with Moldova's aspirations and thus has a limited impact on the reform process in the long term.

Finally, I will show the added value that the inclusion of Moldova in the Stabilization and Association Process for the Western Balkans could have compared to the ENP, particularly as a more effective instrument to deal with the Transdniestria conflict. During the first half of the 1990's the EU showed little interest in the fate of the newly independent Republic of Moldova. In 1991 the EC set up TACIS, a special program of economic assistance for the six ex-Soviet Republics, instead of including it in the PHARE program for Central and Eastern European Countries, thus indicating that it would have a differentiated approach towards the former Soviet Bloc .

Despite the intensification of armed clashes in the Transdniestria region in 1992, Moldova did not attract the attention of the EU, which was already busy with the outbreak of war in Bosnia . The first sign of rapprochement between the EU and Moldova came with the signing of a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement in 1994. These agreements were designed to formalize bilateral relations between the EU and countries from Eastern European and Central Asia. However, their scope was very modest, compared to that of the "Europe Agreements" between the EU and Central and Eastern European Countries, as the perspective of membership was not envisaged .

Tags: European Neighborhood Policy, Eastern European Countries, Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, Western Balkans, Association Process