Last month’s talks in Chisinau between Romania’s president Traian Basescu and the representatives of the new pro-western administration which came to power in autumn can only be interpreted as a political signal. In procedural terms, the healing of wounds must continue. It wasn’t until Tuesday that the foreign policy parliamentary committees in Bucharest approved the nomination of Romania’s former representative to the Vatican Marius Lazurca as the new Romanian ambassador to Chisinau. This post has been empty since April 2009 when the former Romanian ambassador to Chisinau, Filip Teodorescu, was declared persona non grata following yet to be confirmed allegations that he encouraged the protests of Moldovan students accusing the government of election fraud.

At the hearings in Parliament, Lazurca spoke about the consolidation of bilateral ties and said the Republic of Moldova needs Romania’s expertise in its efforts to join to the European Union. Chisinau’s European aspirations are also the subject of a framework cooperation agreement signed on Tuesday by the two states’ Parliaments. The head of the foreign policy committee of the Romanian Senate, Titus Corlatean, explained what the agreement consists of:

“A programme of concrete actions with deadlines and contacts between the permanent committees in the two Parliaments.”

These actions range from the translation and implementation of the community acquis to joint economic projects benefiting from European financing. Corlatean’s counterpart, Igor Corman:

“The European Union needs a stable, prosperous country at its borders. Romania is interested that the Republic of Moldova becomes this type of country as soon as possible.”

While normalisation is the buzz word in Bucharest, in Chisinau, the former Moldovan strongman between 2001 and 2009, the communist leader Vladimir Voronin, now in opposition, says that the time of protests and actions has arrived. He urges his followers to stand up against the current government, which he describes as a gang of criminals who have only one purpose, to sell their country, land and people to the Romanian imperialists. So, to conclude, we can say that the situation in the Republic of Moldova is far from being stable.