Foreign Policy Association together with Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung offer you a newsletter on foreign policy and European integration issues of the Republic of Moldova. The newsletter is part of the “Foreign Policy Dialogue” joint Project. NEWSLETTER MONTHLY BULLETIN OCTOBER 2019 NR.10(164) Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates The newsletter is developed by Sorina Ştefârţă, editor-coordinator TOPICS OF THE EDITION: 1. Victoria Roșa, advisor to the Prim-minister on security and defence issues: „The Government aims to democratize the Transnistrian region and improve the people’s lives there” 2. Editorial by Mădălin Necșuțu, BalkanInsight.com reporter: „ The Transnistrian file between the domestic political games and the troubled regional equation” 3. Dumitru Mînzarari, researcher, doctor of political science, associate expert with IPRE: „ You cannot build a prosperous future based on a wasteful model” 4. Expert Opinion. Mihai Mogîldea, IPRE: „Where the“small steps” lead us to” Mention should be made that all materials were developed end of October 2019 News in Brief The European Commission approved, on the last day of October, a new tranche of budget support for the Republic of Moldova in amount of 24.85 million euros. This installment will contribute to improving police services, increasing economic opportunities in the field of agriculture and rural development, strengthening support programmes for the energy sector reform and public finances. Regarding the police reform, the money is allocated to improve the conditions and quality of studies in the training and excellence centers for the police, to implement a system of continuous vocational training and to improve the conditions in the preventive detention isolators. The EU resumed the budget support and macro-financial assistance in July 2019 in order to support the process of structural reforms undertaken by the Government. Since then, the EU has offered 73.54 mln. euros and by the end of the year the disbursement of another 40 million is planned. A country like a boat. But do we also have paddles? After five years of implementation of the Association Agreement, the sectoral cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova is much more consolidated today, especially in the fields of research, innovation and education. The benefits have been multiplied by the visa-free regime with the EU, and the cooperation in the field of foreign policy and security has been deepened. However, the functioning of democratic institutions, the strengthening of the rule of law and the independence of justice have not undergone clear changes, which has severely affected the quality of the EU-Moldova dialogue and the full capitalisation on the European support. These are the main findings of the“Alternative Report: five years of implementation of the Association Agreement- Progress, Constraints and Priorities”, presented on October 30 by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms and the Independent Analytical Center“Expert-Grup”. According to the authors of the report, despite the reported constraints, due to the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area our country has approached the EU from an economic point of view, which has become our main economic partner. At present, about 70% of Moldovan exports are oriented to the EU, and the net impact of exports is estimated at over 367 million euros. This has contributed to the creation of over 15,000 jobs, helped to increase the budget revenues by 5% and investments in the private sector- by 320 million euros. The results and prospects of the participation of the Republic of Moldova in the Eastern Partnership(EAP) were discussed on October 23rd by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, Nicu Popescu, with the ambassadors of the EU member states responsible for EaP who were in Chisinau. The interlocutors noted the importance of the EaP in bringing the countries of the Eastern Neighborhood closer to the EU during the last ten years. With reference to the successes achieved by our country, we mentioned the liberalization of the visa regime with the EU, the signing of the Association Agreement which also includes the Free Trade Area, the implementation of various projects that offer concrete benefits to the citizens and the business environment.“The EAP has made a major contribution to changing the dynamics of the economic development of the Republic of Moldova. In recent years, Moldovan exports to the post-Soviet area have decreased by 500 million Euros, while in the EU they increased by 700 million Euros. Our access to the European market not only compensated the losses on the Eastern market, but also provided an additional surplus of 200 million Euros, said the head of the Moldovan diplomacy. For their part, the EaP Ambassadors reiterated the EU’s support for the reforms initiated by the Moldovan Government. Sorina Ștefârță October is over, leaving the memory of an election campaign halfway consumed, a bitter taste of a battle that was never as boring as this and an avalanche of assumptions about“what will be after” the victory/ loss of the Chisinau City Hall by one of the two candidates“with chances”. At the time I’m writing this text, I could only venture into forecasts, but what relevance will they have after a week, when the show is over?! Because, by the time you SURSA: TV8 will be reading this edition of the newsletter, the final results of the elections (the second round) will be certainly already known, and the journalists will be competing in making meticulous calculations and inventing new infographics, to give us a the most Monthly Bulletin, Nr. 10(164), October 2019 64, Sciusev str. MD-2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova, Tel-Fax:+373 22 21 09 86 Website: www.ape.md E-mail: office@ape.md