EUROPEAN STUDIES, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND SECURITY STUDIES, pages: 83 - 106, 2025

EU Accession of the Republic of Moldova: the Challenges of the Internal and Geopolitical Context

Doi: https://doi.org/10.58603/VFSR9297

Rezumat: The geopolitical context, but also by internal political changes have had a considerable impact on the dynamics and evolution of the European integration process of the Republic of Moldova. During the last two decades, the geopolitical reality has fundamentally changed in the area of Central and Eastern Europe. The accession of the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine to the European Union is a complex and highly topical issue that has come again to the forefront of discussions in Brussels and in the European chancelleries on the background of Russian aggression since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The objective of this analysis is to identify and view and discuss the challenges posed by the beginning of the EU accession negotiations of the Republic of Moldova from the perspective of a geopolitical contextualization and under the influence of internal identity cleavages, with an emphasis on the reality in Transnistrian region and Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (ATU Gagauzia). From a methodological point of view, in order to understand the internal and geopolitical contextualization, we consider a diachronic analytical approach, as well as an explanatory-descriptive one, following in particular the evolution of the relationship between the Republic of Moldova and the EU after the launch of the Eastern Partnership (EaP).