Moldova is at a turning point in its history. Since 2022 the country is on the EU accession pathway, successively and successfully become a candidate country, and then opening accession negotiations earlier this year. This month, the Moldovan population will have to decide on its European future in a constitutional referendum and a national elections. One of the big architects of this progress is Nicu Popescu, Former Minister of Foreign affairs and European integration of the Republic of Moldova between 2019 and 2024. I had the pleasure of interviewing him in September, to talk about this EU integration process, his recently launched initiative in favor of the referendum “Citizens for Moldova“ and his experience as Foreign Minister. Enjoy your read!
Jules Bigot: What does Europe, and being European, mean for you?
Nicu Popescu: First and foremost, it means peace. I think people in Europe, after decades of peace and prosperity, have forgotten that Europe started with peace, with the need to reconcile France, Germany, Italy, and to build a new relationship between these states.
Then based on this peace, we built prosperity. Now a lot of the debate in a consolidated, rich democracies in the West is about farmers, subsidies, the price of energy etc. But it’s important not to forget what European integration did to Europe. It brought peace to more than 30 countries. Of course, there is NATO, the US and Canada as well in this picture.
Europe is also about peace. It’s about reconciling with the enemy, but also ensuring their security from external threats. Second, Europe is about democracy. It played a huge role in consolidating democratic transition in Spain, Greece, Portugal, and subsequently Central Europe. European integration brought peace, helped democracies consolidate, made everyone win in Europe. French and German citizens also benefit from the fact that this space of European peace, of European democracy and of European prosperity is larger. Just look at how many businesses, how many travels, how much echanges there are between Romania, France, Spain, Poland.
This is why I think it’s important to never forget the basics, but also to continue using this recipe that worked for the German transition from dictatorship to democracy, for Spain and for the Czech Republic. If it worked for them, it will work for Moldova, for North Macedonia, for Albania, and everyone will be happy.
J.B. : Moldova is on it’s way to the EU, you know it better than anybody for having been one of the main architects of this during your time as Minister for European integration and foreign affairs. What would be the benefits for Moldova and its citizens to join the EU?
N. P. : It is clear that Europe is the best, practically the only way, to consolidate peace, democracy and prosperity in Moldova. If you look to the east of Moldova, you will see countries that tried to be democratic, but at different points in time went back to being dictatorships or authoritarian regimes. Belarus, Russia, Central Asian countries. You also have countries which are democracies, but nonetheless had very dramatic attempts to impose dictatorships and authoritarian rules. Here I will remind how the former leader of Ukraine Yanukovych ordered policemen to kill protesters, to shoot them with Kalashnikov weapons.
Moldova does not want to be part of this space. The complicated regional situation with renewed Russian militarism and imperialism, the brutal aggression against Ukraine, simply reinforces the idea that Moldova wants to remain peaceful, not be attacked, and to consolidate its democracy. And the only way to do so is within a wider family of countries that support each other, and that’s the European Union.
And if you look closely, most of the countries of the European Union are not very big. Many of them are small: Luxembourg, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, etc. These countries individually would be much more vulnerable to external pressures, to democracy and security threats. But despite their small size, all together they are much stronger, and Europe as a whole is also stronger.
But even big countries like France or Germany are stronger because they have another 15 small countries being their allies. This is why I think yes, it’s important for Moldova to be part of this bigger family. Moldova would be another country that is not very big, sure, but would still add its stone to the common peace, common stability, and common prosperity that make the EU stronger.
J.B. : And inversely, because the EU accession process is a dance between 3 main actors, EU institutions, candidate states and EU member states, what is the benefit for EU member states, like France, to take Moldova into this EU family?
N.P. : I think if you calculate very individually what is the benefit for France that Luxembourg co-created the European Union, that you have the Euro circulating in Andorra, or that Slovakia joined the EU, the benefits are not very clear. But then if you look at the bigger picture and put all of these small countries together you get 15 to 20 countries. Together they make up for a lot of people, who contribute to more peace, more stability, more prosperity in Europe and more benefits for everyone, including for big countries like Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
So I think that the question is more “what do small countries bring to the table?“. And each of them brings something different, but it is putting it together that makes it a pretty big and strong Union. If you add up the population of small countries in the EU, it would be bigger than France and Germany taken together. A larger area of both peace, prosperity and democracy is what small countries bring to the EU and its big member states.
J. B.: One of the topics that is always brought about when we talk about the EU integration of Moldova, of course, is Transnistria. Is this separatist region problematic for Moldova’s EU accession?
N.P. : Of course, Moldova does have this separatist conflict with this region. This region has been constantly supported and manipulated by Russia to destabilize Moldova. It’s clear. At the same time, Moldova is not the only country that either is in the EU today or has been on track to joining the EU that has a separatist problem or a conflict on its territory. There was the Northern Irish conflict that, that was such a problem for so many years. You have the case of Cyprus as well, an unsolved separatist conflict that did not prevent Cyprus from joining the EU. So in Moldova we strongly believe that joining the EU with Transnistra is possible.
But on the other hand, the EU accession process will take some time. So this gives the government more time to reintegrate the region and to join the European Union with the Moldovan citizens from the left bank of the Dnistru river. But if when joining the European Union, we didn’t manage to solve the conflict, well, it can also be solved after the country joins the European Union.
J.B. : Can EU integration be a factor of reintegration?
N.P.: Yes. Absolutely. Of course, a Moldova that is more prosperous and democratic has more capacity to solve this conflict, to present a better alternative to the citizens of Moldova who live in this separatist region. But we should also be very frank that it’s not just about prosperity. There’s also a strong security element. There’s an illegal Russian military presence in this region. So, it also complicates things, a lot depends on how the war in Ukraine evolves. And in this sense it’s very important for Moldova, but also for whoever wants a Europe based on peace and security and respect of the sovereignty of states, to support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself, to win this war. A Ukrainian victory would bring about new parameters to solve this separatist conflict in Moldova. But a Russian victory would be a disastrous development for Europe as a whole, but also for dozens of small or medium sized countries in the world living next to potentially aggressive neighbors.
J.B.: Can you tell us a bit more about this very particular period of your time as Minister of European Integration and Foreign Affairs, with the full scale invasion of Ukraine, the granting of EU candidate status, the energy crisis, the recommendations of the European Commission, and the opening of negotiations? Surely you couldn’t have imagined all of this happening during your time in office when President Maia Sandu appointed you, could you?
N.P. : Of course this was a very dramatic moment, and still is a dramatic moment in the history of Europe. This is the biggest war on European soil since World War II. It is important to remind countries like France, Spain, or Belgium, that this conflict is closer to Paris, Madrid or Brussels, than World War II was to America. America was further away but felt that World War II was threatening its security interests, and came to help France, Britain, and other countries to liberate Europe from Nazis. This war and Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine is close to Europe, to the European Union and to Western Europe. It’s important to remember this.
Of course, the effects of these dramatic events in Ukraine have been severe in Moldova. I can structure that period in several stages. The early warnings came around October 2021. Russia started cutting the gas supplies to Moldova as part of Russian energy blackmail (which is a standard practice from them). It was very clear that Russia wanted to reclaim influence in this part of the world. Then, in October 2022, the United States started warning us that Russia was about to launch a full-scale invasion against Ukraine. At the time, very few people believed it. It was an error of judgment of course. People in Europe failed to imagine that in 2022, a large peaceful European capital like Kyiv, or a city of cultural European heritage like Odesa could be brutally bombed by airplanes. But it was possible. And this disaster, this brutal Russian aggression, continues today in Ukraine.
In Moldova we started having huge waves of refugees. In the first year, I think something like over a million refugees crossed the border into Moldova and were hosted by Moldovan families. Besides this difficult humanitarian situation, Moldova immediately felt threatened in security matters. In the first weeks of the war, the Russians were advancing very fast, so there was the impression that they could very quickly arrive to the Moldovan border. That, of course, was a source of huge stress for the population and for the security system of the state.
During all those weeks, we, the government and the president Maia Sandu, were busy making sure that the refugees were taken care of, that they entered country, that they had food, a place to sleep, could transit to the rest of Europe, facilitating the entry of people who didn’t have proper documents. Very often you’d have families escaping from bombs, with one person with a passport, but two persons with expired passports or birth certificates. So there was a lot of work done to make sure that everyone escaping from bombs could find a safe place.
At the same time, we were very busy making sure that Moldova was safe and not threatened. So we ramped up the diplomatic effort to mobilize international support for Moldova with a clear signal to Russia that Moldova matters, that Moldova is not alone, that Moldova is supported and protected by Romania, France, Germany, the United States and the European Union. In the first weeks of the war, we had a huge stream of high-level visitors, foreign ministers, Prime Ministers, or even Presidents. That was an explicit signal that Moldova, its security and sovereignty was somethings our partners cared about. It was a way to build up security and defense capacity.
In those dramatic times, on March 3rd, we also applied to join the European union. By June 22nd, we became a candidate country and by November 23rd, the European Commission came to the conclusion that we fulfill all the criteria to start accession talks. Finally, on December 23rd of last year, the European Council gave a green light to the start of accession talks.
So, if you ask me personally so there was a bit of a slightly surreal situation, where in the same day we were monitoring the news from Ukraine, trying to bring in help to the refugees, mobilizing international partners, finding ways of strengthening Moldova’s security, filling up thousands of pages of questionnaires for the European Commission about standards and statistics, looking at the directives and their calendar of implementation, etc. This is what we have been doing, in 2022-2023, with the teams of the Foreign ministry and the government.
J.B.: Moldova is now entering into a very important electoral sequence with the presidential election, the constitutional referendum about EU integration, and next year the legislative election. How do you view or judge this initiative by President Sandu of organizing this referendum, which legally is not an obligation in terms of EU accession?
N.P.: Well, it’s a referendum about inserting into the Constitution a reference to European integration as a fundamental objective of the country. Most Constitutions of the world provide the standards of how the democratic system should work in the country. Our Constitution has been providing for certain provisions about how to build a democracy, and that worked. For 30 years, Moldova managed to keep its democracy. And now there is also this initiative by President Sandu to insert in the Constitution a foreign policy objective of joining the EU, which is another way to consolidate democracy in Moldova, but also to anchor Moldova’s place in the European family of nations. It also sends a clear signal domestically to the current but also to future governments that is a fundamental goal that will be the guiding principle of Moldova’s foreign and internal policy.
So what you have now is of course a period of campaign for the presidential elections and for the referendum because they are on the same day. When it comes to the referendum, I was involved in launching with other personalities in Moldova a civil society initiative to talk about Europe, to explain Europe better what is Europe, what is European integration, and what it is not. Our initiative is called “Cetățeni pentru Europa“ (Citizens for Europe) with personalities from all kinds of spheres the Moldovan society. We have opera singers, we have sports personalities, Olympic athletes, journalists, festival organizers, folk music singers, etc. It’s a very wide initiative of mostly non political people - unlike me - but who care about the country’s future and the country’s future in Europe. We have now 700 volunteers, a door to door campaign across Moldovan villages and cities to explain Europe, and combat the large scale, non stop, very expensive, very targeted, very aggressive, very lie-full Russian propaganda about Europe.
This propaganda affects the population, so for us, it’s very important to make sure that people know what European integration is about, what the European Union is about. The Russian sponsored propaganda campaigns say that being part of the European Union means war, means being attacked. It says that in Europe you don’t allow freedom of religion, that the Orthodox cult is persecuted, which is a complete lie. In the EU, the Church is a very respected institution. In France you have laïcité, but in some countries the Church is the official religion, and some of them are orthodox, like in Greece or Cyprus. So we try to make sure that people are less exposed to the effect of these lies and disinformation.
J.B: But isn’t this referendum a risky move? If the “yes” goes through, there is an amazing future ahead for the pro-European movement in Moldova. But if the “no“ wins, it puts an end to the EU accession process! Isn’t it a big risk taken by President Maia Sandu?
N.P.: I don’t see this as being a serious risk, no.
J.B.: Our newspaper is mainly read by young enthusiastic Europeans, how do you view the role of the youth in this EU integration process? And to conclude, do you have a message for the Moldovan youth reading this article that might want to engage in this campaign for the referendum?
N.P.: The European Union was created by many wise men who were not necessarily very young! Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Alcide De Gasperi, Altiero Spinelli. And yet they created a Europe where youth thrived, and subsequent generations of builders of Europe were formed in a Europe that was peaceful, that was not fighting each other, that was not killing each other. For entire decades, the youth of France and Germany had been looking at each other through the barrel of a gun. But by the 60s, 70s, 80s, they built this Union together, and gave birth to what we know as the Erasmus generation. So the youth is fundamental to the EU. But my plea for the youth of Europe today is to remember history. Remember that Europe was not always as it is, peaceful, calm, and friendly.
I understand that all countries can have better functioning economies, redistribution systems, taxation systems. But we shouldn’t take peace for granted, we shouldn’t take democracy for granted. And while we fight for a better economic system in our countries, it’s always important to realize that part of the capacity of France, of Spain, of Germany to remain democratic and prosperous is thanks to the constant investment in friendships with other countries, in supporting each other, in maintaining Europe integrated, and it’s enlarging Europe to countries like, North Macedonia, Albania, Moldova, Ukraine. Only by doing so, we can maintain the region peaceful. The alternative is very bad. Look to the east and look to the south. In the south you will see Libya, the effect of the war in Gaza, the situation in Lebanon, Syria. In the East, you have a dictatorship in Belarus, a dictatorship in Russia, brutal attacks on Georgia, on Ukraine, dictatorships in Central Asia. The only way for Europe to maintain its island of peace and prosperity is by sticking together with other countries, small and big, because no European country on its own, is big enough to face and to resist in a world as dangerous as it is now. The only way for Europe to be strong is by being together.
J.B.: What can we wish for, for Moldova in the next couple of months?
N.P.: Of course to be part of Europe. In many ways Moldova is already part of Europe, but it still needs to get its place in Brussels at the table.
J.B.: Thank you!
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