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Results of the survey – measuring attitudes of the Moldovans to the EU and their perceptions of Moldova-EU and Moldova-Russia relations – were presented and debated during the second “What Do Moldovans Think” public presentation organized by SAC in partnership with Independent Journalism Center (IJC), on Monday, 16 June 2014, in Chisinau.
Compared to the grimmer findings of the poll, the fresh focus groups survey results are by and large positive: although public opinion about immediate economic benefits, preferences and market accessibility of the EU and the Eurasian Customs Union (ECU) may be divided, there is no doubt amongst respondents that cooperation with the EU offers a more stable outlook into the future.
What constitutes a real shift, however, is an increasing sense of urgency focused on rebuilding Moldova’s state capacity – as a „home“ – to make it a strong, independent, stable, functional and self-respecting nation. This is coupled with the notion that local reforms must come first, EU membership (perspective) after.
The survey shows that “a lot of thinking is maturing” in Moldova, remarked H.E. Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, in his kick-off remarks. According to him, the strong nation-building paradigm registered by the survey implies a growing sense of ownership, responsibility and dignity among the Moldovan citizens.
Balázs Jarábik, CEPI Associate Fellow, concurred with this assessment – while the results of the last-year poll could have been characterized as “hangover”, he argued that the new survey points to a gradual “sobering up”.
On the other hand, as Vladimir Soloviev – the Editor-in-chief of the Moldova-based Kommersant.md – reminded, having people speaking about domestic reforms and the urgency to rebuild Moldova can also mean that the politicians have so far failed doing their job. Yet, as neither the EU nor the ECU will do the job for Moldovans, the sense of ownership is imperative.
The “What Do Moldovans Think” presentation was moderated by Moldovan investigative journalist Natalia Morari and featured a number of local and international speakers – among them the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, H.E. Pirkka Tapiola, CEPI Senior Fellow, Balázs Jarábik, Veaceslav Berbeca, Political Expert at IDIS “Viitorul”, Vladimir Soloviev, the Editor-in-chief of Kommersant.md, and Michal Skala, Director of the Transfer of Know-How Program at SAC.
The event was a part of the “Widening the European Dialogue in Moldova” project implemented by the SAC with assistance of the CEPI and in partnership with IJC. The project, financially supported by SlovakAid, has the ambition to contribute to the efforts aimed at increasing public support for EU integration in Moldova, particularly utilising Central Europe’s recent experience with the EU integration process.
