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 JUNE 2020 NR.6(172) Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates The newsletter is developed by Sorina Ştefârţă, editor-coordinator TOPICS OF THE EDITION: 1. Tatiana Molcean, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration: ”At some point, I think, they will apply a differentiated approach to the Eastern Partnership countries” 2. Editorial by Victor Chirilă, executive director of the Foreign Policy Association(APE): ”Rule of law- the great challenge of the Eastern Partnership in the Republic of Moldova” 3. Iulian Groza, Executive Director, Institute for European Policies and Reforms: ”Moldovans’ perceptions of the EU had already changed by the time of the pandemic” 4. Expert Opinion: ”It is time to focus our efforts on differentiated integration...” News in brief The European Commission approved on Friday, July 10, on behalf of the European Union, the disbursement of Euro 30 million of macro­financial assistance for the Republic of Moldova. The second and last tranche of the current macro-financial assistance programme for our country consists of Euro 10 million in the form of a grant and Euro 20 million in the form of a long-term and low-interest loan. The programme will help to meet the needs of external financing, respectively to reduce the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The disbursement of assistance was conditional on the fulfilment of certain political preconditions, which the European Commission and the European External Action Service(EEAS) consider to have been met. In this context, the press release issued on 10 July states that sufficient intermediate progress has been made in this regard, in particular concerning the series of specific short-term actions related to justice, anti-corruption, the media and civil society. Also on July 10, the European Commission made public the Report on the fulfilment of the visa liberalization requirements by the countries of the Western Balkans and three Eastern Partnership countries- Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. According to the report, the above-mentioned countries continue to meet the visa liberalization requirements, while the free movement brings economic, social and cultural benefits. The report focuses primarily on security and migration, which requires further action, even if“the vast majority of visa-free citizens are bona fide travellers with legitimate reasons to travel to the EU”.“Overall, the visa-free travel scheme has achieved its goal: strengthening people-to­people contact between the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership countries and the EU, including with the diaspora communities in the EU Member States, improving business opportunities and cultural exchanges, and allowing citizens to get to know the EU better”, states the document, covering the calendar year 2019 and the first half of 2020. The post-2020 cooperation objectives were discussed at the virtual meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Eastern Partnership(EAP) countries, held on 1 July. Minister Oleg Țulea underlined the importance of deepening the political dialogue and agreeing on concrete long-term sectoral objectives, which will contribute to strengthening the resilience of the EaP countries, but also to deepening the integration processes with the EU. In this sense, the importance of continuing the dialogue of the associated partners with the European Commission on the implementation of reforms was mentioned. The following were mentioned among the priority objectives: connecting to the Single Euro Payments Area(SEPA), reducing roaming tariffs between the EU and EaP countries, opening up the EaP countries’ access to the European road transport market. Minister Oleg Țulea also expressed interest in strengthening security cooperation and welcomed the EU’s readiness to deepen cooperation in the area of health system. All the ideas communicated will serve as a basis for the European Commission in preparing the consolidated version of the objectives post-2020. The Eastern Partnership post-2020, the challenge of being more vocal and more visible Sorina Ștefârță June 2020 that has just past was not only expected for the“inaugural gong” of the holidays. This June, in Zagreb, Croatia, was to take shape the next decade of a project that very few gave it big chances of life in its infancy, in the distant 2009. It is about the Eastern Partnership and the Summit dedicated to it, which, like thousands of other events around the world, was turned upside down by the pandemic and ... postponed for next year. To the surprise of many, however, the pandemic did not stop the talks on the Eastern Partnership. On the contrary, in a period that you would have expected it to be more of a total freeze - especially in the EU which was hit hard by the virus - the Eastern Partnership has been propelled, with the contribution of the European Union, to a new dimension of integration and regional resilience to global threats. It happened, first of all, due to the fact that most of the European support offered to our country to fight the pandemic and its economic consequences came in the context of our membership of the Eastern Partnership. A project launched with the aim of strengthening and deepening the political and economic relations between the EU, the Member States and the six states in the eastern neighbourhood of the community- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. A project that has developed according Monthly Bulletin, Nr. 6(172), JUNE 2020 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