A special gathering of MEPs together with the Romanian foreign minister in Brussels on Wednesday (15 April) said Moldova should be invited to an EU summit for eastern partners, despite recent violence.
“The EU will defend the rights of the democratic opposition, NGOs, those detained and killed in prison. On that we shall not compromise. But it is not through isolation that we can run our eastern policy,” Polish centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski said.
“The Eastern Partnership should project stability, the norms and values of the EU to its eastern vicinity. We don’t see why it shouldn’t include [problematic] countries,” the Romanian minister, Cristian Diaconescu, added.
The European Parliament is likely to re-iterate the stance at its plenary session next week, in what could come as a blow to young opposition activists in Moldova who believe the EU has been too soft on Chisinau so far.
The Eastern Partnership summit in Prague on 7 May will see the EU upgrade relations with Moldova and five other post-Soviet countries, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine.
The Czech EU presidency has indicated it might invite representatives at the level of foreign minister or lower to meet the 27 EU leaders, in order to avoid giving an excessive air of legitimacy to governments that stand accused of human rights abuses.
Acting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek is to visit Moldova on 22 April, while the EU mulls sending a formal fact-finding mission.
Andrew Rettman