Eugen Osmokescu
In order for the reforms carried out by the authorities in Moldova to succeed, five points must be fulfilled. The representative of the EU Delegation to Moldova, Mate Cixai, speaking at the Moldovan European Integration Forum in Chisinau, emphasized that, firstly, the republic needs to continue strengthening its administrative potential: to attract qualified personnel to the state administration, including from business and civil society; to increase the level of interagency cooperation. Second: to focus on the real implementation of laws and regulations, not only on their harmonization with European standards.
According to the European official, people need a result, they are not interested in the process, so the EU wants to see “initiatives that bring real and immediate benefit to people.” In this regard, Cixay noted that the correct communication of the state with citizens (the third point of success) and the achievement of socio-political consensus in society (the fourth point of success), where the main factor of cohesion should be the idea of European integration. As the last point, Cixay mentioned the effective use of EU support, which will be continued. At the same time, Cixay believes that the territorial-administrative reform (which the authorities intend to implement before the next local elections in 2027) could have a significant impact on the preparation for the absorption of European funds.
The EU plans to provide Moldova with financial support amounting to 3% of the country’s GDP per year until 2027. According to the representative of the EU Delegation, Yulda Kielite, this assistance is comparable to the one received by the EU member states and “much higher than that offered to other candidate countries in the accession process”. Speaking at the forum, she emphasized that such injections are envisaged by the Growth Plan (the total amount of which is 1.9 billion euros). But the provision of financial means is directly linked to the realization of concrete actions: Moldova has to implement “153 reforms in the fields of energy, economic governance, sustainable development, green economy”. Which means Moldova still has some serious growing up to do to be ready for EU accession.
“Today, Moldova’s GDP per capita is 33% of the European average. And the country needs to keep growing before it joins the EU,” Chielite emphasized.
Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization Eugen Osmokescu believes that Moldova needs to abandon the practice of reforms “for the sake of ticking boxes” and to think strategically: “We need to get rid of the “niche” thinking, when each state institution looks at the problem only from the point of view of its field of activity”.
Speaking at the forum, he said that reforms should be implemented so that they could bring real added value. For this purpose, it is important to set the right priorities.
“Can we produce missiles? No, so we should not think about it at least in the short or medium term. But we are capable of producing drones. We can work with this idea both in the context of defense and in the context of production of dual-use goods,” the minister said.
At the same time, the minister spoke rather harshly about the Moldovan business. According to Osmokescu, the government does not have time to “coddle” the business environment, which should be active and prepare for the fact that the competition on the EU market will be much more serious.
However, Liliana Busuioc, director of the Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises of the Republic of Moldova, said that “the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises are concerned about the EU integration” because they lack the capacity to fulfill the requirements of the single market. Speaking about the implementation and availability of various state support programs, she stressed that according to a recent survey conducted by the Alliance among SMEs, up to 70% of respondents had never received state support.
A separate panel of the forum was dedicated to the problems of polarization in the Moldovan society. Anna Revenco, Director of the Center for Strategic Communication and Countering Disinformation, said that “the split in society is obvious. The way out is dialog at all levels: political, institutional and social. In particular, in her opinion, politicians should abandon hate speech and not “call all those who do not support the European course extremists.
“People who do not vote for the EU do not necessarily share the ideas of authoritarianism. Many vote not out of ideological convictions, but because of stress, uncertainty, fear… We need to take into account nuance, depth, dialog at all three levels, and then we can achieve social cohesion,” she believes.
Continuing this thought, political scientist Alexei Tulbure noted that the support for EU accession in society has not risen above 60%. For example, according to the latest Public Opinion Barometer (September 2025), 52.7% of respondents would vote for Moldova’s accession to the EU. However, already in December (“Socio-Political Barometer”), the number of respondents supporting the European course of the country decreased to 48%. The expert is sure that this indicates a deep split in Moldovan society, and it is possible to change the situation only by including representatives of all population groups in the process of European integration.
Speaking at the forum, the EU representatives actually outlined a mini road map that Moldova should realize till 2027. Whether it is feasible is an open question. To which the new government should give a clear and full answer, after the traditional 100 days without criticism.
