Moldova wants to become the “Ireland of eastern Europe”, Prime Minister Vasile Tofan has revealed. And its a brand, he says, that has the blessing of Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Prime Minister Tofan said Moldova – with an economy about 35 times smaller than Ireland – is in the process of transforming itself.
“We want to be the Ireland of Eastern Europe,” he said during a visit to Brussels.
“We want to be a platform for companies localising and exporting from Moldova to European Union, to Romania, to eventual reconstruction of Ukraine.
But in order for that strategy to work, the ease of doing business in your country, the regulatory environment has to be significantly easier than in other regional competing countries.
And this is why it’s such a big priority for our government to focus on simplification of rules, to focus on ease of doing business, to focus on a transparent taxation system, to focus on sound judiciary, to focus on fewer controls by abusive, by sometimes abusive of overzealous controlling entities.”
Squeezed between Romania and Ukraine, Moldova has a tiny economy and a huge debt. It is also troubled by a frozen conflict in Transnistria, a self-proclaimed breakaway state along its eastern flank controlled by Russia.
But like Ukraine, it is also a candidate country to join the European Union.
Speaking at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels, Prime Minister Tofan joked that he had checked with his Irish counterpart to ensure there was no diplomatic friction in calling Moldova the Ireland of the east.
“I checked with the Prime Minister of Ireland if he is mad at me for using this, and he said, ‘I’m proud of you using that,’ so I can keep using that brand,” Tofan said.
The two met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
Since Ireland currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, Moldova is keen to lobby for its EU accession process to be speeded up.
“The Republic of Moldova is ready to open all the remaining negotiation clusters. We have made significant progress and want to maintain this pace. We hope that, during the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU, we will be able to take this important step forward together in our accession process,” Prime Minister Tofan said after the New York meeting.
But, future EU integration is likely to come with stricter conditions.
Yesterday, the European Commission set out new proposals on its “pre-enlargement policy” which would see future new members of the European Union face tougher institutional safeguards and more gradual accession towards full benefits like access to the single market and free movement of people.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said whilst expanding the EU was important, so are safeguards.
“Enlargement of our Union is a geopolitical imperative. Today, we are laying the groundwork to ensure that a larger Union is also a stronger one,” she said.
The European Commission confirmed that an update on Moldova’s progress will be published shortly.
The EU has been impressed by the speed of Moldova’s reforms.
Earlier this week, the European Commission confirmed that it was sending an extra €157 million to Moldova as a sweetener.
“This third instalment under the Growth Plan for the Republic of Moldova follows the Commission’s positive assessment that Moldova had successfully fulfilled 18 reforms linked to the Growth Plan, covering all seven areas of the Plan: private sector development, economic resilience, economic governance, social cohesion and labour markets, energy, green transition, and good governance,” the European Commission said.
Between 2021 and 2025, the EU allocated over €1.2 billion in grants to Moldova including funding for energy and support with judicial reforms. Part of the money was also used for “strengthening independence and improving efficiency.”