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Keywords: energy supply; energy dependence from Russia;
A year after signing the agreement to implement the third energy package, the Republic of Moldova, at the Energy Community Ministerial Council meeting in Montenegro on 18 October 2012, asks the European Union for derogation from Article 9 of Directive 2009/73/EC of 13 July 2009 concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas. In fact Article 9 of the Directive which provides that “the same person or persons are entitled neither directly or indirectly to exercise control over an undertaking performing any of the functions of generation or supply, and directly or indirectly to exercise control or exercise any right over a transmission system operator or over a transmission system” and vice versa, is the basic article and delaying its implementation automatically involves delaying other important articles of the directive.
More...The Public Opinion Barometer in November this year contains several items of concern for the supporters of the Republic of Moldova accession to the European Union. In fact, we are witnessing the confirmation of a paradoxical trend noticed already in 2011 – the coming to power of the Alliance for European Integration led to increased skepticism among the population. In the short and medium term this state of things do not seriously jeopardize the reform process. There is a slight chance that people who do not approve of the strategic orientation of the Republic of Moldova will block the reforms. Nevertheless, the population Euro skepticism alienates elites from voters and forces them to promote European agenda in an increasingly narrow circle, turning the Euro integration into the business of only a small group. This fact can ultimately lead to compromising the European cause and reorientation of the Republic of Moldova to the east.
More...The current operating model of the Republic of Moldova economy is based on consumption, which is funded, on a large scale, by remittances. This paradigm is a challenge, despite the fact that it enables the country to develop without involving enhanced efforts to maintain it. With the absorption of migrants by host countries and the reunification with their families abroad it will be unlikely to maintain a massive influx of long-term remittances. In these circumstances it is necessary to change the operating model of the national economy. After the 2009 crisis, one of the basic tasks to ensure the quality development of the Republic of Moldova became “remodeling” the national economy. As a result of the country’s economic transformation process, investments and exports should become the “engines” of growth. This view is exposed in the main policy documents: the activity program of the Government for 2011-2014 “Freedom, Democracy, Welfare” and the National Development Strategy of the Republic of Moldova 2012-2020 “Moldova 2020”.
More...The Republic of Moldova participation in the UN is a corner¬stone of the foreign policy of the state. Due to its unique inter¬national character, the United Nations serves as a platform of activity in a wide range of areas, being a forum for debate of global issues. The implications of participation in the UN has an important role for Chisinau because it offers the op¬portunity to reinforce the image and prestige of the Republic of Moldova on the international arena, such as participation in UN peacekeeping operations, promote national interests by our country missions accredited to the UN or by the presence in elective bodies of the United Nations. At the same time, it is worthwhile mentioning the importance of the assistance provided by UN Agencies to solve development issues facing our country. The United Nations Agencies and programs activity aims to support actions promoting democratic reforms, human development and social inclusion or to support central and local authorities of sustainable environmental management.
More...The dismissal of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Alliance for European Integration, headed by the Liberal Demo¬cratic Party leader Vlad Filat on 5 March 2013 shrouded in mist the prospects of signing the Association Agree¬ment with the European Union at the summit in Vilnius in November 2013. In fact, we have observed lately a continuous retraction of its own goals by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Moldova – from the certainty of signing the Association Agreement and its initialing in March, expressed in late 2012 by Vlad Filat and Iurie Leancă, to the for¬mulation of the doubt in mid-February on signing the Association Agreement in Vilnius and the assumption that it will be only ini¬tialed on this date, to the declaration of a state of suspense in the process of signing the Agreement, to not knowing the date of ini¬tialing the Association Agreement and postponement of a series of important diplomatic meetings in Madrid and Hague in March immediately after the fall of Filat Government. Taking into ac¬count the previous failed prediction of Iurie Leancă with regard to obtaining, at the end of 2012, the liberalized visa regime, which almost cost him the Minister office, we may say that the process of European integration of the Republic of Moldova is marked by two major elements - internal political instability and overestima¬tion, by Moldovan diplomats, of the capacity to advance of the Republic of Moldova in the integration process.
More...Keywords: energy security; energy supply;
Ensuring the energy security of the Republic of Moldova is one of the main objectives of the authorities in Chisinau. Diversification of natural gas supply sources is considered to be one of the main tools that would contribute significantly to achieving this. Therefore, the construction of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline that will interconnect the gas system of the Republic of Moldova to that of Romania is seen by many as an important step to reduce the state’s dependence on the Russian Federation’s monopoly on gas supplies. The 27 August symbolic launch of the construction of the Iasi-Ungheni gas pipeline with the participation of Prime Ministers of the Republic of Moldova and Romania as well as the European Commissioner for Energy coincided with the visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to Chisinau. Rogozin’s statements on September 2 in which he suggested that Moldova could remain without gas in winter were perceived as threats by the public in the Republic of Moldova.
More...Keywords: visa-freedom; Shengen;
Almost 3 years ago, on 24 January 2011 the Republic of Moldova received the Visa Liberalization Action Plan from the European Union. A year earlier at the launch of the Visa Dialogue, no one believed that the Republic of Moldova’s citizens would be able to travel without visas to the EU. As then, today very few believe as well.In 2011 even among well-informed bureaucrats there were opinions ranging from one extreme to the other. While in 2010 nobody thought it was possible, in 2011 the vast majority thought that Moldova would get a liberalized visa regime by the end of 2012. The assumption of rapid visa liberalization was due to the experience of Balkan states obtaining a visa-free regime in just one and a half years (Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro) or two and a half years (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania).
More...IDIS „Viitorul” has consistently followed the evolution of the public and Moldovan elites’ opinion related to Moldova’s European integration processes. In two bulletins published in 2011 and 2012, “European integration of Moldova – is there still a national consensus?” by Leonid Litra and “Consequences of the disappearance of the national consensus on European integration” by Cornel Ciurea, we drew attention to some bizarre phenomena in the foreign policy promoted by the current government and the public support to these policies: 1) the support of the European idea is continuously decreasing and is paradoxically lower than during the communist governance in 2005 – 2009; 2) the current government promotes European Union association in an unfavorable context (unlike the accession of new states to the EU, which enjoyed full support of the population), which increases the risks associated to the process; 3) the European agenda is promoted under these conditions within a narrow circle of people, gradually becoming a group affair; 4) the criticism of integration processes by the opposition is confusing, focusing more on a Europeanism deficits rather than on the demolition of European idea (the Europeans are accused of failing to promote their own ideas in the fight against corruption, free market and enlargement). All these tendencies make the European integration of the Republic of Moldova increasingly unpopular. At the same time they take place with a grimness and absence of clear alternatives. Public officials prefer to characterize this process as having an irreversible character, but a more accurate term would be an inertial course / coasting, due to the lack of sufficiently strong forces that could obstruct this process.
More...Keywords: Russian neo-imperialism;
Discussioons concerning the revival of the neo-imperial ambitions in the Russian Federation are in stage since the end of “honeymoon” relations between Moscow and West in the mid 1990’s. Belief in an emerging neo-imperial policy is being legitimized by recent actions. A widely recognized stereotype in Russian political thinking, influenced by an awareness of contemporary Russia’s weakness and loss of global power, is “until Russia is leader in its region of the world, it cannot be expected to become a global power.” Thus, self-assertion in the “Near Abroad” has become a substitute for the superpower-status inherited from both the Soviet period and a remoter, pre-revolutionary era.
More...Keywords: energy security;
Energy sector is a strategic field for Republic of Moldova Geopolitical situation in the region, the tension between Ukraine and Russia, impose the acceleration of establishing interconnections with Romania, thus ensuring energy security of Republic of Moldova The contract on electrical energy supply to the RM was negotiated and signed in March. The negotiated price has a major impact on country’s economy and directly affects the whole society. Setting the electricity prices excessively high causes extra pressure on the population’s welfare and the monthly bills people pay; while, high dependency on electricity imports from Ukraine and a single generating facility in Transnistria (Steam Electric Power Station ”Moldoveneasca” owned by RAO UES of the Russian Federation) create an energy security vulnerability. Diversifying electrical energy sources through building a connection with Romania allow attaining an acceptable energy security level.
More...The Moldovan central authorities’ relationship with the Gagauz local authorities has been rather tense throughout the last year. This situation has taken many forms: from Gagauz politicians’ requests to provide more funds for the region or adapt national legislation to the law on the special status of ATU Gagauzia, to ensure good functioning of autonomy to overt challenges such as the organization of referendums in the Gagauz region on 2 February 2014 on the foreign policy vector of the state and the right to external self-determination of the Gagauz autonomy if the Republic of Moldova loses its independence. The strained relations between Chisinau and Comrat were especially evident during the negotiation, initialing and signing of the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. Anti-European messages and actions by the Gagauz leaders evidence the presence of a foreign factor in the conflict between central and Gagauz autonomy authorities.
More...Each year, the IDIS „Viitorul” team analyzes the state of Moldova’s European integration process. In our previous Foreign Policy Statewatch analyses, we ascertained that the European integration is irreversible process, we stated the erosion of the viability of a consensus over the European integration process, we defined the circumstances under which EU’s fatigue towards Moldova1 could arise, and we evaluated and offered recommendations on improving and harmonizing the process. Moldova’s new political configuration provides ground for a short evaluation of the trends in Moldova’s approximation to EU.
More...Objectives: - To present the main components of the international business environment - To develop the competence of analysing the components of the international business environment (of different types of economic, political and legal systems existing on the globe, national culture, sociodemographic and technological factors affecting the development of international business)
More...Objectives: - To understand the role and benefits of international financial intermediation - To become aware of fundamental concepts related to financing in international markets - To understand the main financing mechanisms in international markets - To analyze the investment appraisal process and apply the criteria that motivate the capital investment decision in international context
More...Keywords: film;festival;catalogue;
More...Keywords: István Köble; schoolmaster;
The paper of Levente Kolumbán presents and analyses the life-story of István Köble, a former schoolmaster. After a short introductory part, the writing presents the written memories of the schoolmaster and the edited version of the life-history interview. The author preferred to emphasize the memorial voice over the discourse of the extensive ethnographic analysis. His work can be best read as a source material.
More...Keywords: educational theater; show script; theater director; documentary theater; children; parents; performing arts; social theme; sexual education; Romania; school; parent-child communication;
The project "EVERYTHING IS VERY NORMAL - DIALOGUE WITHOUT TABOOS." is organized by the Replika Cultural Association and co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration - AFCN.
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