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Democracy promotion / Comment

Moldova, Transnistria and European Democracy Policies

01/02/2007 By Jos Boonstra

In its first 15 years of independence, the Republic of Moldova has made only limited progress towards developing an economically viable and democratic state. The country remains impoverished and its leadership has been unable to make progress on solving the internal separatist Transnistrian conflict.

Recently, attention towards Moldova and the Transnistrian issue has dwindled, having been placed on the backburner by EU member states and the United States.

After hitting a wall in the search for possible options for Transnistria, the EU has become silent on the issue; the OSCE, while defending its own overall significance and purpose, has become weakened; and, in the meantime, Russia has been reasserting its presence.
Compounding this disappointment, other issues in the region – Kosovo, energy disputes – have assumed greater urgency than the conflict in Moldova.

Nonetheless, the US and EU governments, international organisations and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) have made their way to Chisinau to discuss
democratic consolidation and, hopefully, will now be en route to Tiraspol, the
gloomy capital of Transnistria that bolsters Soviet heritage and remains untouched
by democracy.

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Keywords

Civil society Conflict resolution Democracy Democracy promotion Eastern Europe and Russia EU European Neighbourhood Policy Frozen conflicts Moldova OSCE

Bio author: Jos Boonstra

Jos Boonstra is senior researcher in the democratisation programme of FRIDE. He focusses on EU, NATO and OSCE policies in Eastern Europe and beyond with specific attention to democratisation of security and defence.