Fighting corruption and the reform of law enforcement institutions delays the long-awaited Europe without barriers

Its almost certain the fact that 2012 year wont bring to the Moldovan citizens the opportunity to travel without visas in the European Union.   - This could be concluded despite extremely positive statements of some officials, but also due to some real progresses registered by Republic of Moldova", claimed the IDIS expert Leonid Litra in his study, presented today, February 7th, 2012.

The analysis - Moldova on the EU visa liberalization path: taking stock of achievements and failures" was elaborated as a part of the project - Paving the road towards visa-free travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and EU". The initiative is implemented by PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society), under financial support offered by the Local Government Initiative and The Reform of the Public Service (LGI) of Open Society Foundations (OSF).

Underlining the successes of Republic of Moldova we can definitely mention the exclusive issuance of biometric passports. Leonid Litra said: - The more biometric passports become accessible and spread, the easier it will be for the authorities to explain population what represents a liberalized visa regime with the EU. In order to avoid the further disappointments, it needs to be clarified from the beginning to the population that after obtaining a visa liberalized regime they will still need visas to travel for a longer period than 90 days in the EU and will not be entitled with the right to work". Moreover, population from Transnistria needs to be encouraged to prepare respective documents in order to obtain biometric passports.

Among the most significant laws that were recently adopted are those regarding the activity of Border Police, State Border and protection of personal data. Nevertheless, to set the date from which population will benefit from the right to travel free in the EU doesnt depend only on the number and time of adopting laws, but also on how are these put into practice. It will create difficulties, mainly because of decreased capacity of state institutions to convert the policies into practice. Corruption remains to be one of the major challenges of the Government and strongly affects the image of Moldova. Last but not least, more attention should be paid to the aspects regarding human rights and tolerance of different minorities.

At the same time, it might be very difficult to face the financial challenges caused by the visa liberalization regime with the EU. Besides the subsidies granted from the state budget, it is necessary an additional amount of 39 millions of euro to bring in the last phase the Action Plan regarding visa liberalization regime with the EU. An important achievement would be the official participation of Ministry of Finance in the working group regarding visas, considers political expert Leonid Litra.

Another institution that has remained officially outside is the Parliament of Republic of Moldova: - Unexpectedly, the plan of adoption of legislation negotiated by Government with the EU appeared to be a surprise for the deputies. In the Action Plan regarding visa liberalization regime with the EU are included 41 legislative acts, that imply a consistent volume of work and discipline not only of the deputies, but also of the Parliament Secretary," said Leonid Litra from IDIS - Viitorul". From these 41 legislative acts, only two thirds were adopted in the final reading of the Parliament or approved through Government Decision. The rest of them are either in the consulting process or already have passed the first reading.

In order to eliminate these coordination deficiencies, but also the competition, sometimes unhealthy, between state institutions on this segment, the IDIS study recommends the recruitment of an adviser in the prime-minister office that will have in his portfolio the visa liberalization regime with the EU.

At the same time, authorities need to cooperate more efficiently with Ukraine in the field of border management, especially of the Transnistrean segment. Also, it needs to be finalized the demarcation process of the State Border with Ukraine for the sector of hydro station and Novodnestrovsk barrage, village Palanca and some other hundreds of meters from the Giurgiulesti Port. On the Transnistria perimeter have been demarcated almost half of the total of 450 km.

It is obvious that in comparison with Western Balkan countries (Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro), the decision to travel free in the EU for Republic of Moldova citizens will be more difficult to take. In this case Republic of Moldova should be also sustained by these states that manifest their worry for the migration of labor force and increase of criminality, but also it has to fight the criticism of some of the EU countries regarding the issuance of Romanian citizenship for Moldovan citizens, even if the respective subject is not officially related to the visas liberalization process.

  Similar studies as the one presented on February 7th at Chisinau by Leonid Litra have been realized in parallel in all the countries of the Eastern Partnership- Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and Belarus.

  As well, in the framework of the project: - Paving the road towards visa-free travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and EU", in march 2011 have been launched web pages entitled - novisa", followed by the national extension (novisa.md for Republic of Moldova) and for the countries included in the Eastern Partnership the common website www.novisa.eu.   The online platforms, besides official reports and alternative studies of the non-governmental experts, offer day-by-day news regarding registered progresses, insisting on those deficiencies that need immediate treatment.

PASOS project also includes advocacy events at European level, in order to accelerate the proximity to a visa liberalization with the EU. A good coordination with Brussels and member-states of the EU will allow the in-time monitoring of eventual sympathies and reluctances and will ensure the political support necessary to finally benefit from a Europe without barriers.

IDIS - Viitorul" is one of the initiators of the project - Paving the road towards visa-free travel between the Eastern Partnership countries and EU" and the partner of Republic of Moldova, being a member with full rights of the PASOS network.