Moldova may scrap EU association agreement

Moldova may have to revoke its Association Agreement with EU after the parliamentary election, the country’s new president Igor Dodon told his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin in Moscow during his first official international visit in the capacity.

“I will be in Brussels in early February, and, of course, this is something we are going to discuss with our partners from the European Union,” Moldovan news site zdg.md quoted Dodon. “We’ll demonstrate all the figures. Two years have passed. There are no results  – either economic or other – to show, and so, we’ll tell them, let us decide what we should do next.”

Dodon believes the Association Agreement has not given Moldova whatever it was it hoped to gain. “By the way, I spoke against signing the agreement repeatedly. I think the agreement has yielded no benefits to Moldova… I don’t rule out that after the parliamentary election [due in November 2018] the agreement may have to be cancelled.”

Vladimir Putin said the relations between the two countries could have done better in the recent past. “The halved trade turnover is one sign of this…, but I very much hope that your first visit to Russia, which is also your first international visit in the capacity of president, will give impetus to our interstate relations in all spheres,” Putin said.

He promised to deal with the issue of over 50,000 Moldovan nationals banned from entering Russia.

In his turn, Dodon said his plan was for Moldova to resume its exports to Russia.

Head of the Socialist Party Igor Dodon was elected president in December 2016. He is a vocal Eurosceptic and an ardent supporter of closer relations with Russia.

President’s is, in large part, a figurehead post in Moldova, and tackling foreign policy issues comes within the purview of the country’s government.

Moldova signed the Association Agreement with the EU on June 27, 2014, alongside Georgia and Ukraine. Russian officials have repeatedly referred to the agreements as a threat to the interests of the Russian Federation. Ukraine government’s U-turn on its decision to sign the Association Agreement caused massive protests in Kiev in late 2013, which led to a change of power in Ukraine.