Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Bessarabia
Political and cultural events were held on Thursday in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, to celebrate 96 years since the historical province of Bessarabia joined Romania.
Valentin Țigău, 28.03.2014, 12:30
The union of Bessarabia with Romania on March 27, 1918, was a chapter in the process of constructing the Romanian nation state, completed on December 1 that same year.
On Thursday, a series of conferences, exhibitions, concerts, theatre performances and book launches devoted to this event were held in over 40 towns in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, artificially separated after World War II.
On the same day the President of Romania, Traian Basescu, decorated several personalities from the Republic of Moldova, and said Romania supports Moldova’s EU accession, so that it may enjoy the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Union.
Since splintering from the USSR in 1991, the Republic of Moldova, the successor of historical Bessarabia, has been seeking closer ties with the EU and with neighbouring Romania. Bucharest has always backed Moldova’s European endeavours through various programmes, such as granting Romanian citizenship to certain categories of Moldovans or grants for Moldovan students.
The tensions in Ukraine and the hotbed of pro-Russian separatism in Transdniestr make the Republic of Moldova more in need of EU and Romanian support than ever. An opinion poll conducted by the Romanian Survey and Strategy Centre last month indicates that more than half of the Moldovans believe the union with Romania to be feasible, in a favourable historical context, and 52% of them explicitly want it to happen.
The most important advantage this would entail, according to 41% of the interviewees, is the freedom of movement in the EU. Nonetheless, Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin still has the highest approval rates there, and the popular support for joining the Russia-Belarus customs union overshadows that for the country’s EU and NATO integration.
Admitting that the Romanian nation is living today in two separate states, Bucharest has as its current goal helping Moldova to become an EU member as soon as possible, and its citizens to embrace the European values as an identity model.
