European integration is both a target and a process. From the perspective of Western democracies, the process is much more important than the target, because EU, too, is undergoing a continuous process of change, of reaction to new and new challenges. To the Republic of Moldova, European integration is the key to its successful democratic development, while its maintenance within the Russian Federation's sphere of influence and domination means the lack of any prospect for democracy, human rights and economic prosperity to assert themselves. In the Republic of Moldova there is a lot of talk today about European integration and even about successes in implementing the EU - RM Plan of Action. But, strange enough, they forget that there are several stages which should precede European integration. One of these stages consists in the creation of the requisite conditions for integration. Here are some of them, presented in contrast to examples from the current situation in the Republic of Moldova: compliance with the Council of Europe (CE) standards and, in future, with the even higher standards of EU (RM is a state monitored by the Council of Europe, the democratic institutions do not work very well, a possible decision to give up monitoring will not reflect the real state of things in RM); freedom of the press (Freedom House rightly estimated a few years ago that the press was not free in RM. This situation persists. The private mass media are subject to harassment unless they obey the authorities, and "Teleradio Moldova" is a public institution only on paper, in the absence of any real pluralism of ideas or relevant public debates, etc.); the independence of the judiciary (with reforms very much like those in Caragiale's plays, the president of the Higher Council of the Judiciary, who before the parliamentary election had come under fire for his role in bringing the judiciary under the control of the political power, has been reappointed to the office without any opposition; besides, the court decisions, questionable as they are, are not executed, except when political pressure is put to this effect; the number of cases referred to EHRC increases with every passing year, etc.); transparency of governance (the law on the declaration of wealth, passed in 2002 under CE pressure, was amended half a year later and the dignitaries' declarations of wealth have become utterly irrelevant. The citizen cannot learn about the dignitary's wealth, neither how it varies. The dignitaries, instead, know about the citizens' incomes from the tax returns we all submit by March 31 of each year. The situation is the reverse of what it should be); the abandonment of the Soviet governance model (the first report on the "successful" implementation of the EU-RM Plan of Action has never been made public and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, quite strangely, posed as spokesperson for the European Commission and presented the latter's opinion on the report. The Moldovan society did not have and further does not have any possibility to examine and express its critical opinion of the report. But even if we could see the report and express our reaction to it, this would not have the expected effect because the erroneous information has already been massively disseminated nationwide via the electronic mass media and that's that. And because the audience rating of the democratic mass media is lower, the act of disinformation cannot be countered too easily); functional market economy (in RM there are salaries of 15 - 20 euros per month, while the minimum consumer basket is estimated at 100 euros per month. People are unable to cover even their minimum expenses. There is a negative dynamic as regards foreign investment, etc. To speak about integration while having such an economic situation is not exactly the most serious thing to do); the implementation of the civic education programmes, the population's awareness of the mechanisms and levers available to them in order to exercise their rights and to hold the political class accountable (these are positive measures which should be implemented by the authorities, but given the situation described above, they will be diverted in order to further keep people in the dark, to conceal the existing corruption, so that the same Soviet nomenklatura elite or the product created by it should remain in power, etc.); a special requirement - a change in power between the pro-European political forces (to confirm the consolidation of democracy in RM); above all - the solution of the Trans Dniester issue (an instrument of political, economic and social manipulation of the Republic of Moldova by the Russian Federation. Example - the testimony made by M. Bergman, military commander of Tiraspol, about the large-scale financial frauds committed by the 14th Army though "Polevoi Bank". In 1993 carriages loaded with Soviet rubles, out of use in the Russian Federation but still valid in RM at that time, were sent from Moscow to Tiraspol. Out of ten carriages, two were kept by the intermediary in Tiraspol, while the other eight were returned to Moscow loaded with heavy currency. All the enterprises in the Trans Dniester region were involved in these operations. At the same time, the Trans Dniester issue has been turned into a good pretext by the rulers to govern the country as seen from the above mentioned examples). The way in which the authorities regard European integration could be summed up as follows: "Europe means financial stability and security for the fortunes acquired so far. We are in power and we have to remain in power. Europe is pressing us to democratize ourselves. If we achieve genuine democratization, we risk to lose the power. So, what shall we do? Simply, we simulate reforms and make the Europeans believe that the Republic of Moldova is becoming more democratic; actually, we won't change anything and will continue to protect our interests...". Therefore, before speaking about European integration, we should meet the conditions preceding integration. Then, as these conditions are being complied with, we can speak about the prospect of acquiring the associate state status, further on about the prospect of receiving an invitation to start accession negotiations, of opening the negotiation chapters, of closing the negotiation chapters. Dorin Chirtoaca, Republic of Moldova, expert, Helsinki Committee

Dorin CHITOARCA