Weekly Roundup: Negotiations with the EU Begin
June 2, 2024
Welcome back to Moldova Matters! I’m sorry that this weekly roundup is a bit later than normal. Even with a floating publishing schedule sometimes I get pulled away onto other projects and things get delayed. It was a fairly light news week last week so we’ll get you all caught up here today on the top stories. This week we also have some additional interesting content planned so stay tuned.
Negotiations on EU Accession Officially Begin
On June 25th the first Moldova-EU Intergovernmental Conference took place in Luxembourg. At this meeting Moldova officially began negotiations on the EU Accession process with Prime Minister Recean leading the Moldovan delegation and speaking with EU and EU member state representatives.
While this was a formal event with many photos and press opportunities it also marked the beginning of a new phase of the highly technical process of joining the EU. It begins the process called “bilateral screening.” In the near future the European Commission is slated to release more information about the schedule of the screening process but it is expected to take 12-18 months.
During the screening process Moldova’s legislation will undergo a thorough study for EU compatibility.
The Moldovan delegation laid out the country’s primary negotiation position in terms of timeline and potential transition periods. In terms of timeline, Moldova has set a target of becoming a full member of the EU by the year 2030. In terms of transition periods, Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister of European Integration Cristina Gerasimov suggested that the country may request a longer period to come into full compliance in the agricultural sector and in some environmental legislation. But she stressed that it is the screening process that will identify these or other key points saying:
“…this process will become the very X-ray that will show how good we are in some areas and how bad we are in others. This process will make it possible to know exactly what we will be able to do to be ready to join the EU by 2030, and what we will not be able to do by then. For those areas that we cannot bring into compliance by 2030, we will ask to establish a transition period,”
Speaking of the importance of this occasion, Prime Minister Recean stated:
“We all have an obligation to seize this moment and leave our children a legacy of a peaceful Moldova, where people live in harmony and a full life. Today we have moved to a new stage, which brings us significantly closer to joining the European Union."
Will Moldova and Ukraine Proceed Together?
In parallel with the start of negotiations for Moldova, Ukraine also began this next major step towards joining the European Union. Reporters asked Prime Minister Recean and Deputy PM Gerasimov whether or not Moldova and Ukraine would proceed through this process together, or begin diverging. The question was inspired in part because Hungary has shown general support towards Moldova’s candidacy but threatened to block Ukraine’s.
Deputy PM Gerasimov explained that while the 2 countries will be moving in parallel in the accession process “each country will move at its own pace.” In these remarks she was referring to the technical process of screening and implementing EU requirements - a process that will differ between Moldova and Ukraine because the countries have different laws and institutions.
Speaking to the political question Prime Minster Recean sought to emphasize the closeness of the countries saying:
“Moldova and Ukraine suffered greatly from Russia’s war of aggression. And we help each other in security issues and in the process of European integration. And we will continue to cooperate on these issues.”
It remains to be seen if EU member states such as Hungary seek to impose restrictions or delays in Ukraine, Moldova or both as the process moves forward.
Political Updates
Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the top political stories of the week:
Former Prime Minister Ion Chicu announced he will run for president for his PDCM Party. The former PM, who barely registers in the polls, also announced that he would call on his supporters to boycott the Referendum on European Integration. In tortured answers to the press the former PM attempted to explain that his party, which grew out of splits with the Socialist Party, was still pro-European and that there was not contradiction with their recent signing of the "Pact for Europe" and decision to boycott the referendum. His main justification was that Moldova’s path towards European integration will not be affected in any way by either outcome of the referendum.1
Socialist Municipal Councilor of Balti Maxim Morosan was arrested along with 5 other people following a street brawl and later bar fight. Morosan, a former magician and known associate of organized criminal Grigore Caramalac (aka “Bulgar,” aka “the Bulgarian”) had previously returned from living in Russia to run for Balti mayor with the Socialist party. He lost that election to a candidate from Renato Usati’s party. Morosan has accused Usati of orchestrating the fight in some way to discredit him and the Socialist Party announced their support in this accusation. Usati denied any involvement and basically stated that when you draft a member of an organized criminal gang who is “involved in drug smuggling” as your candidate you sometimes get fights. All 6 men are being held under 30 days preliminary arrest .
National Security and Transnistria
The government has proposed creating regional “anti-terrorism councils.” Under the plan put forward by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Security and Information Service (SIS), these councils would exist at all regional and municipal levels except for Chisinau and would be tasked with the initial response to a terrorist attack. Councils would coordinate evacuations, negotiations with terrorists, searches for suspects, etc until the Anti-Terrorist Operational Group from SIS arrives on the scene to take command. The councils would be headed by the territorial director of SIS and include the Chairmen and Vice Chairmen of the Raion Council, Mayor and Vice Mayor of Balti, or Bashkan and Deputy in Gagauzia depending on the region.
Shor “Party”
Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the top Shor related news of the week:
Bashkan Gutsul’s trial was delayed again. This time the Bashhan’s excuse was that one of her lawyers was in a car accident and the other’s car broke down. The judge agreed to delay the case but appointed a public defender for the Bashkan following repeated failures of her lawyers to show up for her trial.
The Gagauzia People's Assembly adopted a law in the first reading that would allow the region to independently license media channels. The law seeks to bypass the national Council of Television and Radio (STR) and effectively reintroduce Russian and Shor owned channels to the region. Commentators and the STR uniformly noted that the law is illegal and actually unconstitutional. The regional law would still need to be voted in a second reading, after which it will no doubt face court challenges.
The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) rejected the appeal of Shor’s “Chance” Party against their exclusion from last fall’s local elections. The court called the government’s action to remove the party and candidates at the last minute “lawful, reasonable and proportionate, and its approval was related to the provisions of the law and the principles of international law.” In their decision they cited evidence from SIS that the party benefited from at least 90 million lei in shadow financing during the campaign.
Bashkan Gutsul’s instagram account was blocked by Meta. The Bashkan called this censorship by the Moldovan government, noted that she filed an appeal to Meta and that she opened a new account.
Crime and Corruption
Last week Judge Gheorghe Gorun became the latest magistrate to be found guilty of an “unlawful decision” in the Laundromat Case. The judge was found to have made 2 fraudulent rulings regarding debts between Moldovan, Russian, UK and other offshore registered companies. The first judgement was in the amount of $180 million dollars and the second in the amount of $610 million dollars. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations the judge will face no consequences for his guilty ruling and was set free.2 The case was opened in 2016 and after 4 months of investigations was brought to court. There it lingered for 7 years before this ruling. Prosecutors called the ruling a victory saying that it brings legal clarity to "one of the most complex and extensive money laundering schemes." Recall, the “Russian Laundromat” case involved the laundering of more than $22 billion dollars through Moldovan courts and banks during its period of operations.
Author's Note / Analysis: Chicu’s largely incoherent position on the referendum highlights a continued sorting into the “Yes” (to joining the EU), “No” and “Boycott” camps. The only party actively campaigning for “No” is the Shor party(s) right now. PAS and many other small pro-EU extra-parliamentary opposition parties are campaigning for “Yes” - including mayor Ceban’s MAN party. The Communists have announced they will boycott and the Socialists haven’t announced a position yet. The referendum needs a 33% participation rate in order to be valid so a coordinated boycott campaign could result in a failure to pass the referendum. Chicu’s PDCM and other “recently” pro-European but historically pro-Russian parties seem to be campaigning for a “soft-no” vote that their voters might be tricked into believing has no consequence except to protest against Maia Sandu and PAS. The situation remains very muddled now and there aren’t clear dividing lines yet, but the seeds of a concerted strategy from the pro-Russian camp are starting to emerge.
Author’s Note - A partial clarification on the statute of limitations question: I’ve been struggling to understand how these multiple cases are all resolving without criminal consequences for the guilty. In a normal legal system the statute of limitations places restrictions on when a prosecutor can bring an indictment not a time limit on the trial itself. I’ve struggled to find a lawyer or legal expert who can best explain the nuance of this in Moldova to me (if you are one - please reach out) but after consulting with a political expert and long time court watcher on background here’s a basic outline of what may be going on. In these cases the criminal behind the money laundering colludes with the judge and the prosecution in order to delay and obfuscate the case. In the case of the laundromat the mastermind of much of the laundering was Veaceslav Platon, who is currently living as a free man in London (he colluded with Vladimir Plahotniuc and others). The goal of the court manipulation is to delay the case until it is out of the public eye. Then, at some point along the way the original charges are dropped and superseded with new charges under a different element of the criminal code. These charges will have already had their statute of limitations expired so even in the case of a conviction the corrupt judge is safe. The Moldovan press hasn’t done any deep dives into these cases with enough depth to figure out all of these twists and turns, and again, I haven’t spoken to a legal expert who did so either. So this is a description of one mechanism that has been used in cases like this, but not necessarily what happened in this case. Critically, the current prosecutors *may* also not be the original ones from the case who consented to changes. 7 years is a long time in court.