Carlos Uriarte 
Secretary General of Paneuropa España
A
fter a first round of presidential elections held on October 20, 2024, in which none of the candidates managed to overcome the threshold of 50% of the votes and exceeded the 33% turnout as established by the Moldovan electoral law, the two most voted, in this case, the current president of Moldova, the pro-European and Coudenhove-Kalergi award winner, belonging to the center-right Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), with 656,852 votes (42.49% of voters), and the second most voted, the candidate closest to Russia, Alexandru Stoianoglo, of the Party of Socialists of Moldova, who obtained 401,215 (25.95% of the total votes) in the first round.
Of the eleven candidates in total running in the elections, the third and fourth most voted, were respectively the chairman of the political formation Our Party, businessman and former mayor of the city of Bălți, Renato Usatîi, with 213 169 (13.79% of the votes) and the former governor of the autonomous region of Gagaúzia, Irina Vlah, who obtained 83 193, i.e. 5.38% of the total.
A national referendum was also held on October 20 with the following question:
Susțineți modificarea Constituției în vederea aderării Republicii Moldova la Uniunea Europeană, i.e. Are you in favor of amending the Constitution with a view to the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union).
The voting options were “Yes” and “No”. The Yes in favor of the constitutional modification with the objective of EU accession won by a narrow margin: 50.38% in favor of Yes against 49.62% in favor of No. The referendum was boycotted by pro-Russian-leaning Moldovan politicians such as presidential candidates Alexandru Stoianoglo and Renato Usatîi.
The referendum was boycotted by pro-Russian Moldovan politicians such as the presidential candidates Alexandru Stoianoglo and Renato Usatîi, as well as by the former president Igor Dodon.
In the second round of the presidential elections, held on Sunday, November 3, President Maia Sandu was re-elected President of the Republic of Moldova for a second term, obtaining x votes against her opponent x. From these votes, President Sandu would have obtained in the capital Chisinau 215,493 votes (57.38%) against 160,062 votes (42.62%) for Alexandr Stoianoglo. In the territory of Moldova at the general level, the situation would have been very even with 692,533 votes (51.19%) against 660,226 votes (48.81%), but once again it was the Moldovans living abroad who gave their decisive support to the pro-European candidate, Maia Sandu, who obtained 82.03% of the votes of this large group, i.e. 236,313 voters against 51,781 (17.97%) for Alexandr Stoianoglo. The final result of the elections gives as the winner of the elections the pro-European candidate Maia Sandu, who obtained 930,512 (55.41%) of the votes against Alexandr Stoianoglo, who would lose the elections with 748,781 (44.59%) of the support in the electoral contest for the presidency of the country. The total number of voters has been 1.679.293 with 99,86% of the scrutiny finalized (waiting for three electoral acts of the 2219 total). Alexandr Stoianoglo has maintained a balanced position in favor of the accession of the country to the European Union, but without breaking with Russia, something which in the light of the war in Ukraine and taking into account that part of its territory, Transnistria, there is a Russian military contingent of occupation of approximately 2,000 soldiers in this region which broke with Moldavia in the 90’s and whose conflict is frozen.
This result is a boost to Moldova’s aspirations to join the European Union.
Let us recall that on July 1, 2016, the EU-Moldova Association Agreement entered into force, following its provisional application since September 1, 2014. This agreement makes it possible for Moldova to enjoy a free trade zone of broad and deep scope. In addition, the Republic of Moldova applied for accession to the European Union in March 2022 and was granted EU candidate country status in June 2022. The European Union held its first intergovernmental conference with Moldova in June 2024.
The European Union-Moldova Association Agreement establishes an official body, the so-called Association Council, which meets periodically to monitor the implementation of the agreement. On May 21, 2024, the eighth meeting of the Association Council took place, where issues related to political dialogue, reforms, cooperation and convergence in foreign and security policy and economic matters were discussed.
In the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, between 2022 and 2024, the European Union has granted 71 million euros for Moldova for humanitarian assistance to help civilians affected by the war in Ukraine. The European Union is also an important security and defense partner for Moldova. In May 2024 the country signed a Security and Defense Partnership Agreement with the EU. There is also an EU Cooperation Mission in action since April 2023 to support Moldova in crisis management related to hybrid threats and endangering its cybersecurity. Between 2021 and 2024, the Union has granted Moldova €137 million through the European Peace Support Fund with the aim of modernizing its armed forces. It should be noted that the European Union is the largest provider of financial assistance and since 2021 has provided more than €2.2 billion (on October 10, 2024, the EU approved a plan worth €1.8 billion with the aim of accelerating the accession process and speeding up reforms and mechanisms to achieve social and economic convergence. There is additionally a temporary trade liberalization that was adopted by the Council in 2022 through a regulation that has been extended until July 24, 2025 liberalizing trade in seven agricultural products (tomatoes, garlic, table grapes, apples, cherries, plums and grape juice), allowing duty-free doubling of their exports to the European Union. In the fields of energy, on March 16, 2022, the electricity grids of Ukraine and Moldova were successfully synchronized with the continental European grid.
The Council adopted on April 28, 2023 a new legal framework for targeted restrictive measures allowing the EU to impose sanctions on persons responsible for supporting or implementing actions that undermine or threaten: both Moldovan independence and security, as well as its democracy, rule of law, security and stability. As a result, a sanctions regime applies to 16 individuals and 2 entities (this has been extended until April 29, 2025).
The European Union and Moldova also cooperate in the context of the Eastern Partnership with the aim of strengthening their relations in both the political and economic fields.
Both the result of the referendum of October 20 and the result of the presidential elections confirm the irreversibility of the will of the Moldovan people to become part of the European Union, in short, of the European family that is committed to democracy, the rule of law, freedom, solidarity, peace and a world where international law and multilateral cooperation are the driving force of its external action against a world that is committed to confrontation, nationalism, authoritarianism and disrespect for the principles of international legality.
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