Abstract

Although visa liberalization marks a major success in Moldova’s quest to becoming closer to the EU, the process is ignored, underestimated and often challenged by a part of the society. This is due to association that is being made between abolishing visas to the EU and the compromised reputation of the “pro-European” government. Also, the citizens’ economic expectations does not correspond with the real goals of the visa liberalization. At the same time, interest for the abolished visas was heavily diluted as a result of the significant number of EU passports (Romanian, Bulgarian) issued to Moldovan citizens long before the visa liberalization with the EU. Moreover, from the perspective of Moldovan potential migrants, our passports do not hold the same privileges as the EU passports do.  

Read the rest of the article in the Romanian version.