In 2014 it was discovered that approximately $1 billion was stolen from the Moldovan government in a scheme to clean Russian money. The huge amount lost had significant impacts on Moldova's economy. For context, their GDP at the time was just over $8 billion so when news of the scandal broke there was public outrage and nationwide protests. Foreign aid came to a halt and inflation spiked to nearly %10 in 2015. Ever since the countries leaders have been focused on rooting out corruption.
They are not currently apart of the EU but are being considered. They neighbor EU members Romania and Bulgaria who have the most similar cultures too Moldova. However, Russia still has strong influence in Moldova and any current corruption is likely tied to them. In 1991 Moldova left the Soviet Union and has been slowly integrating with central and western Europe since. Becoming an EU member would mark in important milestone in this integration and be a huge benefit to the Moldovan people and economy.
1 comment:
The EU is kind of becoming like a club of some sort, where people just get membership for benefits and cancel when they can't pay or cost outweighs benefit, just here, we're speaking of countries. On one hand, the EU's existence is a good thing for poorer countries, because they can use the economic ties and trade benefit, but it is bad for the rich countries because they are essentially providing for the benefits. But rich countries leaving the EU just poses a problem for the poor ones, especially those joining newly.
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