PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
Contacts

Address
1957 E St NW,
Washington, DC 20052

adminponars@gwu.edu
202.994.5915

NEWSLETTER
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Podcast
PONARS Eurasia
PONARS Eurasia
  • About
    • Contact
    • Membership
      • Membership | Core
      • Membership | Collegium
      • Membership | Associates
      • About Membership
    • Ukraine Experts
    • Executive Committee
  • Policy Memos
    • List of Policy Memos
    • Submissions
  • Podcasts
  • Online Academy
  • Events
    • Past Events
  • Recommended
  • Ukraine Experts
DIGITAL RESOURCES
digital resources

Bookstore 📚

Knowledge Hub

Course Syllabi

Point & Counterpoint

Policy Perspectives

RECOMMENDED
  • Will Ukraine Wind Up Making Territorial Concessions to Russia? Foreign Affairs Asks the Experts

    View
  • Pro-Kremlin Propaganda’s Failure in Ukraine | New Voices on Eurasia with Aaron Erlich (Jan. 19)

    View
  • Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

    View
  • Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens students daily and forces teachers to improvise

    View
  • Prevailing Soviet Legacies

    View
RSS PONARS Eurasia Podcast
  • The Putin-Xi Summit: What's New In Their Joint Communique ? February 23, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman speaks with Russian China experts Vita Spivak and Alexander Gabuev about the February meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and what it may tell us about where the Russian-Chinese relationship is headed.
  • Exploring the Russian Courts' Ruling to Liquidate the Memorial Society January 28, 2022
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with scholars Kelly Smith and Benjamin Nathans about the history, achievements, and impending shutdown of the Memorial Society, Russia's oldest and most venerable civic organization, and what its imminent liquidation portends for the Russian civil society.
  • Russia's 2021 census and the Kremlin's nationalities policy [Lipman Series 2021] December 9, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with social scientist Andrey Shcherbak about the quality of the data collected in the recent population census and the goals of Vladimir Putin's government's nationalities policy
  • Active citizens of any kind are under threat [Lipman Series 2021] November 5, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Alexander Verkhovsky about the Kremlin's ever expanding toolkit against political and civic activists, journalists, and other dissidents.
  • Russia's Legislative Elections followup [Lipman Series 2021] October 4, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Tanya Lokot and Nikolay Petrov about the results of Russia’s legislative elections and about what comes next.
  • Why Is the Kremlin Nervous? [Lipman Series 2021] September 14, 2021
    In this week’s PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Ben Noble and Nikolay Petrov about Russia’s September 17-19 legislative elections, repressive measures against electoral challengers, and whether to expect anything other than preordained results.
  • Vaccine Hesitancy in Russia, France, and the United States [Lipman Series 2021] August 31, 2021
    In this week's PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Denis Volkov, Naira Davlashyan, and Peter Slevin about why COVID-19 vaccination rates are still so low across the globe, comparing vaccine hesitant constituencies across Russia, France, and the United States.  
  • Is Russia Becoming More Soviet? [Lipman Series 2021] July 26, 2021
      In a new PONARS Eurasia Podcast episode, Maria Lipman chats with Maxim Trudolyubov about the current tightening of the Russian political sphere, asking whether or not it’s helpful to draw comparisons to the late Soviet period.
  • The Evolution of Russia's Political Regime [Lipman Series 2021] June 21, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Grigory Golosov and Henry Hale about the evolution of Russia's political regime, and what to expect in the lead-up to September's Duma elections.
  • Volodymyr Zelensky: Year Two [Lipman Series 2021] May 24, 2021
    In this week's episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about Ukrainian President Zelensky's second year in office, and how he has handled the political turbulence of the past year.
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Moldova: A Success Story Within the EU Eastern Partnership?

  • November 2, 2012
  • Andrey Makarychev

Guest post by Andrey Devyatkov—The EU–Moldova Forum held in Berlin on October, 22-23, 2012, was meant to raise the profile of Moldova as a “success story” within the EU Eastern Partnership. The message from the Moldovan delegation was traditional: the European Union should give Chisinau a clear European perspective untill the next parliamentary elections (in two years). For the Moldovan government, this is a matter of political survival, and it needs progress on the road toward the EU. Moldova is facing great challenges in convincing Germany that the EU should rapidly correct its policy. Even if after the next Eastern Partnership summit (Vilnius, November 2013) Moldova will receives agreement on “association,” visa liberalization, and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), this might be not enough to support Moldovan as a “success story.”

To some extent, the Moldovans succeeded in delivering their message when EU Commissioner Stefan Fule confirmed the accession perspective for Moldova. But two arguments played against rapid EU political commitments for Moldova. Firstly, German parliamentarian M. Grund, the head of the German-Moldovan forum, acknowledged that due to the European financial crisis it is politically inacceptable nowadays for political elites in the EU to launch a new wave of enlargement. Secondly, European officials and experts are still critical to the tempo and depth of the reforms in Moldova.

But what is most important is that the Moldovan future was tackled again in the context of EU-Russian relations. German officials were often talking about the Russian-German Meseberg initiative of 2010 that stipulated the forming of a EU-Russian security committee under the condition of a Russian contribution to the resolution of the Transnistrian conflict. For Germans, the Meseberg initiative is one of the key instruments to engage Russia as a “strategic” partner in pan-European affairs. For Moldova, due to the Meseberg initiative, the reintegration of Moldova can become a more important priority for the EU than its “EUropeanization.” The Moldovans tried to convince the German delegation that the strategy of engaging Russia and using Moldova as a test-case for Russian-EU partnerships is illusory. Nevertheless, the response was quite clear: Berlin will put the Meseberg initiative on the table at the forthcoming Russian-German intergovernmental consultations.

In spite of the German readiness to take into due account Russia’s position, the only Russian participant, Dmitry Danilov of the Institute of Europe in Moscow, said simply that Moscow and Brussels should create a bilateral security committee without focusing on the Transnistrian conflict. It was a good illustration of the Kremlin’s logic: Moscow wants to skip serious political and security issues in its relations with the EU and concentrate mostly on trade and visa liberalization. It is only a question of time for Germany to understand that no serious dialogue and engagement is possible with such a Russian standpoint.

As for Chisinau, its goals are two-fold:  to do its homework, on one hand, and to engage Tiraspol, on the other. The EU seems unwilling to accept the Cypriotization of Moldova; Brussels sees the reintegration of the country as a prerequisite for its successful Europeanization. The head of the Moldovan delegation for negotiations with Tiraspol, Eugene Carpov, said at the Forum that his government has tried to involve Tiraspol into negotiations on DCFTA, but then specified that Moldova is ready to speak further with Transnistria only if the issue of the political status of the region would be resolved on the basis of the Moldovan constitution. Such statements signal that Moldova is not ready to move toward a de facto federalization of the country.

There is a long way to go to realize rapprochement.

Andrey Devyatkov is a Visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

Related Topics
  • Devyatkov
  • Makarychev
Previous Article
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Escape from Freedom

  • November 2, 2012
  • Sergiy Kudelia
View
Next Article
  • In the News | Hовости

Russian Nationalists Protest Putin, Eye Mainstream

  • November 4, 2012
  • PONARS Eurasia
View
You May Also Like
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Kyiv-Washington Relations in Times of Colossal War: The Ultimate Test of a Strategic Partnership

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • January 11, 2023
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Prevailing Soviet Legacies

  • Irina Busygina and Mikhail Filippov
  • December 27, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

In Russia’s Nuclear Messaging to West and Ukraine, Putin Plays Both Bad and Good Cop

  • Simon Saradzhyan
  • December 23, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Ukraine’s Asymmetric Responses to the Russian Invasion

  • Nurlan Aliyev
  • July 28, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем
  • Territorial Conflict

Dominating Ukraine’s Sky

  • Volodymyr Dubovyk
  • March 5, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии
  • Recommended | Рекомендуем

Russian Anti-War Protests and the State’s Response

  • Lauren McCarthy
  • March 4, 2022
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Путин и Лукашенко

  • Konstantin Sonin
  • August 29, 2020
View
  • Commentary | Комментарии

Отравление оппозиционеров в России превратилось в регулярную практику

  • Vladimir Gel'man
  • August 22, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PONARS Eurasia
  • About
  • Membership
  • Policy Memos
  • Recommended
  • Events
Powered by narva.io

Permissions & Citation Guidelines

Input your search keywords and press Enter.