Early July, Fabian Sommavilla, a reporter from Der Standard, and András Németh, a journalist from HVG, had a dialog with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Chisinau on behalf of the PULSE media community. A powerful advocate for her nation’s accession to the European Union, Sandu, 53, was re-elected on 3 November 2024 and narrowly gained a referendum on Moldova’s EU accession held two weeks earlier.
On 28 September, the nation, which borders Romania and Ukraine, will maintain a normal election marked by suspicion of huge Russian interference to destabilise the nation and in help of pro-Russian events.
Sandu and the pro-EU events concern that Moscow will attempt to seize Moldova and use it towards Ukraine and as a launchpad for hybrid assaults within the EU.
How glad you might be with the progress that has been thus far achieved in direction of this path and what are the primary standing blocks on the highway for full EU membership.
Maia Sandu: As you already know, we have now set a timetable for the EU integration, that is 2030, and for the reason that day we submitted the appliance to the EU, we had been working very arduous, and we had the complete cooperation of the EU establishments, and we have now seen the help of the member states. We imagine we might end the screening course of by September. We imagine each Moldova and Ukraine have fulfilled their commitments and we’re prepared and we do hope that the Commission and the member states will take a call quickly in order that we might begin the negotiations of clusters.
So it signifies that you imagine that it is nonetheless reasonable to hitch EU in 2030?
Absolutely. We will do our greatest. In the final three years we proved that we have now the technical capability and we have now the political will and we do hope that the identical robust political will will proceed after the parliamentary elections.
We do imagine that it is within the curiosity of each citizen on the continent, within the EU, to have Moldova and Ukraine within the E.U. Because that is about peace and that is about safety and… Having a democratic Moldova and a democratic and resilient Ukraine is contributing to consolidating peace and safety on the continent.
EU membership usually goes, we noticed that hand in hand with NATO membership. Moldova is impartial: do you continue to contemplate neutrality to be a wise possibility?
We have neutrality enshrined within the Constitution and a lot of the or the vast majority of Moldovans imagine that Moldova ought to keep impartial. We do respect the need of the folks. Of course, we’re involved with the safety and points and we’re doing so much to strengthen the resilience of our nation.
As of now, Moldova’s safety is defended by Ukraine. We are very grateful for that. We will do every little thing to be sure that Russia doesn’t get to regulate Moldova and to make use of it each towards Ukraine and towards the EU member states. If Russia will get to regulate energy in Moldova, it could possibly remodel it right into a launching pad for its hybrid operations towards the EU.
Could you give extra examples of some collaboration between Ukraine and Moldova?
We try to assist Ukraine as a lot as we will. In addition to internet hosting the refugees, we now have cooperation on power. We at the moment are decreasing the transit tariffs for the Ukrainian fuel, and on the identical time we purchase power in Ukraine when that is out there. We are engaged on transit corridors, on joint customs management, exchanging info, on threats on the border, but in addition on cyber safety and on financial points.
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In the attitude of the 28 September normal elections, you’ve gotten warned of Russian destabilisation efforts. What precisely do you concern might occur?
Russia is utilizing a variety of devices to intervene with our political processes and with our elections. We have seen it final 12 months and we are going to most likely see extra of it this 12 months as a result of there’s a lot at stake in these elections.
Russia is illegally financing political events and election campaigns in our nation. It is utilizing the Transnistrian area in addition to the Gagauz autonomy in its destabilisation efforts. We noticed the way it punished the folks within the Transnisian area within the winter after they stopped the fuel provide, and naturally they’ll strive to do that once more. They use disinformation and cyberattacks as we see in between elections. In the previous there have been vote shopping for schemes, during which Russia did handle to purchase some votes by approaching some folks with low incomes. We do have proof for 140,000 voters, which is sort of a quantity with respect to the overall variety of voters in Moldova.
‘If Russia will get to regulate energy in Moldova, it could possibly remodel it right into a launching pad for its hybrid operations towards the EU‘
Last time, Kremlin proxies tried to intervene with the election processes within the diaspora, with the false bomb alerts in several polling stations throughout Europe, simply to cease or to delay the voting course of and to attempt to cut back the quantity of people that would solid their vote. They paid some younger folks from the Gagauz autonomous area or from different areas of the nation to set fireplace on the Central Electoral Committee constructing or on police automobiles to create the notion of chaos and to attempt to overwhelm authorities establishments and to scare folks in order that they’d vote pushed by concern.
We had been shocked by the outcomes of the referendum and the 2024 presidential election as a result of the general help for EU membership is greater than 60 %, however the “sure” within the referendum on EU accession solely bought 50.4% of votes.
You’re proper. And the polls earlier than and after the referendum confirmed a lot larger help for EU integration. There had been two points that influenced. One is the shopping for of votes, which involved between 8% and 10% of the ballots. The second is the disinformation marketing campaign run by Russia within the few months previous to the referendum. The Kremlin supported a large disinformation marketing campaign concerning the EU and many individuals simply bought scared. It was about LGBT, after all, or the truth that the EU goes to confiscate their land and so forth. Somehow these narratives really managed to get to many individuals; even the Church was massively used to unfold them. But now most individuals perceive that they had been faux information.
The 28 September normal elections can be an important date. How are you ready to fend off Russian probably makes an attempt to intervene?
We have been working arduous in the previous couple of years to extend the resilience of our establishments, but in addition to extend the resilience of society. Institutions must struggle the cyber assaults, to have the ability to establish the channels by way of which the Russian unlawful cash will get into the nation after which is getting used towards our regulation to finance campaigns and political events and to deprave voters. Our media must be robust, as we do must have extra information coming from the free media. We additionally want extra consciousness on the initiatives that the EU has been supporting, about how folks reside within the EU. From this angle, the diaspora is helpful as a result of a lot of the Moldovans now reside within the EU nations to allow them to speak to their relations at residence and inform them what the true scenario is, and never what Russia is saying concerning the EU.
In Romania, many individuals help the unification of Romania and Moldova. What do you consider unification in the long term?
The unification is a crucial determination which needs to be taken by the vast majority of folks. If you look within the polls at this time, it’s being supported by 30% to 40% of the inhabitants. So so long as there may be not a majority, this isn’t a topic that may occur. And this isn’t a difficulty. We do have superb relations with Romania, Romania is our closest buddy and our strongest supporter for EU integration. Romania has been serving to us repeatedly by way of all of the disaster conditions. We are working arduous to implement initiatives for infrastructure and financial integration within the perspective of the EU accession.
