Liliana Palihovici, president of the Institutum Virtutes Civilis and co-chair of the Republic of MoldovaEuropean Union Civil Society Platform, gave an extensive interview to the FES/ APE Foreign Policy Newsletter in which we discussed about the European future of the Republic of Moldova. We talked about how much the expertise coming from the civil society area matters for Moldova’s European path and how Moldova has managed to materialize so far the historic opportunity it has been given by Brussels. We discussed the dangers of halting this path and how it is smarter for the state to invest the historic €1.9 billion in financial aid from the EU over the next three years. We invite you to read the full length of the discussion, published in the Foreign Policy Association and FriedrichEbert-Stiftung Newsletter, we had with Liliana Palihovici:

In general, how do you see the European course of the Republic of Moldova since the signing of the application for membership on 3 March 2022 and up to now? Has the Republic of Moldova taken sufficient advantage of this favourable context?

We are living historic moments for the Republic of Moldova. We have had a Cooperation and Partnership Agreement with the UE since 1998, followed by the Association Agreement with UE signed in 2014 and ratified in 2014 by the Moldovan Parliament, which opened new opportunities and a new stage of Moldova’s accession to the European Union.

With obtaining the European Union candidate country status, Moldova has entered an entirely different

stage of the dialog between Moldova and the European Union, one that is taking place in a geopolitical context with multiple challenges. I would have liked this process, which means a lot of negotiation and a huge reform effort, to benefit from a continuous increase in public support and to take place in a context of peace. Unfortunately, this is not the case, and Russia’s war against Ukraine I think brings more tension into the negotiation process with the EU.

Negotiations with the EU are taking place simultaneously with Moldova and Ukraine. Therefore, it is no secret that things in both countries are happening in parallel and it is clear that the Republic of Moldova, where there is peace, has more capacity and power to focus on reforms and on realizing the commitments it has undertaken in the EU accession process than Ukraine.

Taking this context into account, I believe that Moldova has moved quickly, passing through several stages – the submission of the first application, then the submission of the second application, followed by the European Commission’s report with a lot of recommendations and the generation of that plan for realizing the commitments or recommendations of the European Commission.

The pace of the negotiations has been quite intense, taking into account the fact that at the same time Moldova was also facing a refugee crisis and a complex economic crisis, generated by the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

The government not only had the negotiations with the EU on its agenda, but also had to face the existing challenges: the consequences of the pandemic, the consequences of the war, the energy crisis and others. I am glad that all this has not slowed down the process of dialog and negotiations, on the contrary, it has generated great support from the 27 EU Member States.

We have a great opportunity now that we cannot miss, which is why we need to keep moving forward on the implementation of reforms, as the most complicated part of the negotiations with the EU is to fulfil our reform agenda.

The conference for launching the negotiations has taken place. While other countries took 5-7 years to achieve certain milestones, the Republic of Moldova has completed them in two years. I am pleased about this, and here I must emphasize the merit of the governments in the negotiation process. At the same time, these achievements make me confident that we can still speed up the pace, because we have the support of the European Union Member States.

We must understand that others cannot do the necessary reforms for us. We have to change things the way we want them to be. For example, if we like to see how the justice system works in the vast majority of European Union countries and how much confidence European citizens have in the justice system in their countries, this must also be the case in the

Republic of Moldova. If we appreciate the social protection in EU countries, if we like the roads or the villages there look like, we must be more insistent, more persevering and we must also do more to ensure that these things look the same here in the Republic of Moldova.

If I were to get back to the original question – whether Moldova has benefited sufficiently from EU assistance in recent years – I think so. There is always room for improvement, but if we look at the overall context, I think Moldova has done quite well in these two years.

The huge contribution of NGOs

The contribution of the civil society, especially in the last three years, to this European aspiration has been very important. What do you think are the most important contributions that civil society has made to Moldova’s European path?

Civil society organizations have contributed in various ways and substantially to the results that we have in the process of European integration, whether we are talking about a non-governmental organization focused on policy analysis, evaluation of reforms, or one that operates at district or village level. Each one has made its own contribution and I will give some eloquent examples.

When the Republic of Moldova submitted the first membership application to the EU and then the second one, the government had to answer a long list of questions on reforms and the state of play in various areas in a very short time. You can imagine that the capacities of the ministries are quite limited to complete an EU request for information of such complexity. This has been made possible thanks to non-governmental organizations which have come forward with their expertise to help the government to develop answers to those questions. Their contribution has been acknowledged and appreciated by the government on several occasions.

Another important contribution are the shadow reports of civil society organizations on the implementation of Moldova’s commitments to the European Union in the process of preparation for negotiations. One such example is when the Republic of Moldova presented the European Commission’s report on the implementation of the nine conditionalities imposed by the Brussels executive. The civil society organizations developed an alternative report, which of course was much more critical than the government’s report. The report of the civil society organizations also focused on citizens’ information capacity. We also focused on issues relating to respect for human rights in the Republic of Moldova, including ethnic minorities, and on the left bank of the Dniester, because the Transnistrian region is also part of Moldova. Moreover, our shadow report on the implementation of reforms was not only critical but also included recommendations for reforms.

At the same time, the contribution of civil society organizations was also seen in the preparation of Moldova for the bilateral screening. NGOs have been invited to participate in the working groups for the bilateral screening, to contribute to the elaboration of the presentations for the joint screening meetings in order to ensure that the presentation made by the Republic of Moldova on one sector or another is complex and detailed, providing a clear picture of the reality in the country.

I know very many non-governmental organizations that have been working for years at community and district level, explaining to citizens what accession to the European Union means, what the benefits are for the Republic of Moldova and, at the same time, what our commitments are as a country, because you cannot be just a consumer of goods and democracy. You have to make your contribution here. We also want Moldovan citizens to become more resilient to manipulation and disinformation.

Civil society organizations have also contributed enormously in this dimension.

I would like to point out two other important things, namely the two very active civil society platforms – the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership of Civil Society Forum and the epublic of Moldova–European Union Civil Society Platform. More than 100 non-governmental organizations at national, regional and local level are part of the first platform, while the latter is made up of representatives of trade unions, employers’ associations and civil society organizations, which monitor the process of implementing the EU-Moldova Association Agreement and the process of implementing reforms in the accession negotiation process.

For example, the organization that I represent, supported by the European Union and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, has over the last two years assisted state institutions in developing analyses for the transposition of four European directives. The analyses were carried out in the field of gender equality, equal opportunities for women and men on the labour market, women’s representation on the boards of the companies listed at the stock exchange. Such analyses and analytical papers have been carried out by various nongovernmental organizations which have the necessary expertise to facilitate the process of transposing European legislation into the national law. I believe this is a vast contribution.

I believe that partnerships between civil society organizations and local authorities are also important in the process of European integration. These partnerships have resulted in social laundries, day centres for children from disadvantaged families, centres for people with disabilities or elderly people who have no one to help them. We are talking about a variety of other social services, including mobile teams providing home care to people with disabilities who cannot reach health centres.

The above are just a few examples of actions of non-governmental organizations carried out with the resources provided by the European Union, thus making a significant contribution to the reform process as part of the EU accession.

Economic development as a vital source of social protection

Do you think the authorities pay enough attention to social programmes? Could more be done and where could more be invested?

The effort that the state makes through its policies is considerable, but not enough. Unfortunately, the number of poor and needy people is not small in the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, much more assistance is needed. A state which does not have continuous economic growth can face difficulties. Moldova experienced a 4 percent fall in GDP during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, with negative trends in the years that followed, caused by the war, the energy crisis and inflation. All these crises have had a negative impact on people’s well-being, and in such situations, there is a need for greater state investment in the social sphere. Bearing in mind the capacities of the state, it is very clear that the state cannot face this challenge alone and should have a much more effective and focused dialogue with civil society organizations that can contribute with added value.

NGOs have contributed to the creation of over 50 social services. I believe that more could have been achieved and that the state should learn how to better manage this relationship with various actors in society in order to increase the impact of its social policies. You need to develop smart mechanisms to co-interest business to invest in social projects.

We have social services mostly created by civil society organizations with donor funds, then taken over by local public administration. I believe that we would have a greater impact in developing the network of social services if we did not rely only on state resources, but also on a strengthened partnership between the state, civil society organizations and the business sector.

Generating economic added value with EU funds

How do you see this €1.9 billion infusion coming over the next three years? Where should this money go in particular and what do you see as the priorities so that citizens can see an improvement in their living standards as soon as possible?

Taking into account all the economic development parameters and the geopolitical context in which we find ourselves, I think it is a great opportunity for Moldova to invest this money intelligently to generate economic growth.

Moldova has a large number of poor people who need help from the state. For the state to be able to provide this assistance, it needs to have economic growth. The burden on the state will increase and the capacity to help people will decrease. That is why I believe that this money should be invested in development as a priority. Following the discussions in the European Parliament, some of this money will indeed go towards supporting the development of entrepreneurship. I do not know exactly today how much money will be allocated to support small and medium-sized enterprise initiatives, but some of this money will go there and I think that is the right approach. The more economic initiatives we support, the better chance we have of people themselves generating income, paying taxes and making the state stronger, so that the state in turn can respond to social needs.

At the same time, part of the resources I believe will be allocated for agricultural development. We are a country in which the economy is very much influenced by the agricultural sector, it is just that the resources which will come to co-finance this sector should also be accompanied by certain conditionalities. Those investing in agriculture must be encouraged to adopt new technologies, taking into account climate change and its effects.

No less important is the infrastructure that needs to be modernized. If we want to develop rural areas, we must also create the right infrastructure there. We are seeing a migration of the population from rural to urban areas, we have a depopulation of villages. Why? Because people are looking for better conditions – water, sanitation, which are mostly lacking in rural areas.

If we invest properly in rural communities, stimulate business development there, we can give a different development perspective to the country as a whole. It is important that these resources be also backed up by a comprehensive reform of public institutions.

The amount of €1.9 billion is huge, so we need to make sure that we have a very effective monitoring mechanism for this investment in order not to admit any element of corruption or embezzlement of European funds for development programmes.

I think it is important to invest correctly and I mentioned about regional development above. We need to balance the resources going to urban and rural areas. If we want to have truly sustainable development, we need to encourage more development poles in Moldova and not to concentrate everything in Chisinau, Balti and Comrat. We must ensure that all regions have equitable access to these resources to develop.

Justice reform, I believe, will also benefit from some of these financial resources, because when you don’t have trust in the justice system, you can’t trust that big investors will come here. Every investment must be guaranteed and secured. When we gave the opinion of civil society organizations on the draft Growth Plan for Moldova, we emphasized that we see the economic and social sectors as priorities. As far as the social sector is concerned, we are also talking about investments in retraining the workforce, because the economic sector which benefits from resources for development must have a qualified workforce which is prepared for what they are developing on the market.

That is why we have recommended that part of the resources should be given to investments in educating the labour force in Moldova. This is also reflected in the priorities that have already been announced.

We also need investment in the energy sector. There are projects that were launched with funding from the United States of America, which, after the change in the political situation there, were stopped. However, we are convinced that those projects must be completed, because they will help to ensure Moldova’s energy security. This is also reflected in the opinion put forward by civil society organizations on the draft Moldova Growth Plan, namely to continue financing projects in the energy sector, with a focus on electricity infrastructure and renewable energy sources.

Moldova could also strengthen its energy security by encouraging household consumers to invest in energy, which would enable us to feel much more secure in crisis situations similar to the ones we have experienced. I have proposed that part of the resources be allocated to encouraging research and innovation in the economic field. If we do not keep up with modern technologies, the economic sector cannot be competitive, so this must be a priority.

The role of civil society in the implementation process of Moldova Growth Plan must be an important one, because it is not only a question of resources to finance the projects of civil society organizations, but also of providing NGOs with the possibility of long-term monitoring of each implemented project, of each reform financed from this programme. In this way, we can ensure more transparency and correctness of the government institutions’ processes.

We, as a civil society, do not want to have situations where this year a reform is announced, which we vote for and launch, and a year later we vote for laws that cancel everything we launched a year ago under the umbrella of another reform.

Investments must be sustainable and long-term. At the same time, we need to strengthen the capacities of state institutions to monitor the correct spending of money.

How important is the involvement of civil society in the process of European integration in all its dimensions and are the authorities doing enough in this respect? How do you assess the dialogue between the authorities and civil society organizations?

We have a dialogue and there is cooperation, but we would have liked this dialogue to be much more intense and more organized, perhaps more structured. We have various consultations, for example with the European Integration Bureau, in advancing the negotiations with the EU. In these consultations, civil society organizations have asked for more time to analyse complex documents, to be invited even to the working groups working on those documents that transpose European legislation into Moldovan law. There has also been an initiative to establish an Economic and Social Committee in Moldova, which would serve as a common platform for dialog between the government and all civil society actors. Such an institution that gives opinions on every document debated by the European Parliament or the European Commission operates at the European level.

In this way the executive and legislative institutions can familiarize themselves with the views of society. Today Moldova has several fragmented elements of consultations and some opinions, whether of business, civil society or trade unions, may not reach the attention of the authorities and some promoted actions may disadvantage certain parts of society. The government must never neglect the expertise that exists in the nongovernmental sector, because they are also citizens of the country who can directly contribute to speeding up the country’s reform processes.

Lobby for resumption of US funding

How do you see the decision of the new administration in the White House to cut USAID funds, which were important for civil society in the Republic of Moldova. In your opinion, will the EU be able to successfully replace this vacuum left by the cessation of US funding for civil society in the Republic of Moldova?

I would ask this question in a different way. Moldova, in fact, must now work hard to establish an intense dialog with the new administration of the United States of America, in order to clearly demonstrate to them that the resources which have been invested by the United States of America in the Republic of Moldova have had an enormous impact on the development of the Republic of Moldova, the development of democracy, infrastructure and the economy.

If I were to make an analysis now, I believe that the Moldovan Government has all the arguments at hand to demonstrate the impact of those investments. If we remember the embargo on the export of Moldovan wines imposed by the Russian Federation, then with the support provided by the USAID, investments were made in renovating wineries in Moldova. Investments in wineries brought Moldovan wines to a different quality and opened new export markets. Investments were also made in renovating the irrigation system. Those investments have had a super impact on Moldova’s economic development. Today we are proud of the Moldovan wines which have developed with the USA support.

We have had an increase in the number of family farms offering tourist services in rural areas, again with the USAID support. There has been investment in road infrastructure, if we remember the Chisinau-Soroca highway. American investments have clearly contributed to the increase in prosperity in Moldova.

I believe that it will take some time for the Republic of Moldova to re-establish the dialog through diplomatic channels in order to return, if not all, at least some of the resources that the United States invested in Moldova.

Moldova should continue the dialog with both the European Union and other countries on projects started with American funding.

The strength lies in our capacity of implementing an active foreign policy. It is true that our further success depends to a large extent on what happens in the region, on the geopolitical context, the ceasfire negotiations, which I hope will have a positive outcome and put an end to the war in Ukraine, ensuring a just peace for Ukraine.

The political context in the Republic of Moldova matters just as much in our success, whether we become a member of the European Union in 2030 or not. If the political processes in Moldova take a direction that is not aligned with the European course, we may lose as a society.

Thank you!