Andrei Stoian: Moldova's European integration is already taking place in several areas, even before actual accession to the EU

Relations between the Republic of Moldova and Romania have gone beyond linguistic, historical and cultural ties, being increasingly consolidated through joint projects in energy, economy and infrastructure. This is according to Andrei Stoian, one of the coordinators of the volume "Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Partnership for the EU", launched on Monday in Chisinau. According to him, Moldova's European integration is already taking place in several areas, even before the actual accession to the EU, IPN reports.

Andrei Stoian explained that this rapprochement is particularly visible in the energy sector, through the interconnections between the two countries, including the Iași-Ungheni-Chișinău gas pipeline. Other examples are the Republic of Moldova's accession to the European SEPA payment system and roaming facilities, which allow citizens to benefit from more accessible services.

At the same time, Andrei Stoian stressed the importance of Romania's experience in the process of Moldova's accession to the EU, so that Chisinau can avoid some of the mistakes made by Bucharest. He noted that the volume analyzes bilateral cooperation in the economic, cultural, infrastructure and security fields, and is intended for the public on both banks of the Prut, students and decision-makers.

"It is a tool to ultimately measure the distance between political promise and concrete results," said Andrei Stoian.

In turn, the other coordinator of the paper, Victor Vevera, noted that the linguistic and cultural ties between the two states have extended to the fields of energy and infrastructure. According to him, the authors' contributions offer a broad picture of bilateral cooperation and the support provided by Romania to the European path of the Republic of Moldova.

"Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Partnership for the EU" includes six chapters, which address the accession negotiations, relations between Bucharest, Chisinau and Brussels, energy and economic interconnections, democratic resilience, the Transnistrian issue and public opinion in the Republic of Moldova. The volume's authors include the Governor of the National Bank of Moldova, Anca Dragu, the Vice President of the European Parliament, Victor Negrescu, the Ambassador of the Republic of Moldova to Romania, Mihai Mîțu and the President of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Ion Tighineanu.

It is the tenth volume of the Club Romania Documentary Notebooks series and can be unloaded free from the Romanian Development Magazine website.