On 18 June 2024, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Baiba Braže, met with a group of Moldovan journalists and shared with them the experience of Latvia’s integration into the European Union (EU). The journalists have arrived in Latvia for a training visit of several days organised by the EU Delegation to Moldova. The purpose of the visit is to raise awareness of the process of integration into the EU, as well as to discuss Latvia’s benefits from the 20 years of its EU membership. This is an important visit in the run-up to the 20 October constitutional referendum in Moldova on the country’s accession to the EU. At the same time, it will be an opportunity to counter the pro-Russian forces in Moldova increasingly calling into question the idea of EU integration.
Baiba Braže: “Journalists have a vital role to play in providing the public with objective and comprehensive information for taking decisions on their actions. Meetings with experts who worked on the topics of Latvia’s integration into the EU offer journalists a more detailed perspective and understanding that accession to the EU is not just a political process and a goal – each candidate country must meet certain requirements and take practical steps to embrace the uniform EU rules and laws: they must harmonise their legislation, put in order their justice system, have stable institutions to enable democracy, respect the rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms, and ensure a functioning market economy.”
Baiba Braže also underlined the importance of the visit for the strengthening of resilience among Moldovan society, in view of Russia’s intense disinformation campaigns aimed at slowing down Moldova’s integration into the EU and undermining public confidence in the government and its foreign policy course. Understanding the experience of Latvia will allow Moldovan journalists to inform society in their country in detail about the benefits of the foreign policy vector of EU membership chosen by Moldova.
On 25 June 2024, an intergovernmental conference is to be held in Luxembourg at which accession negotiations will be formally opened, launching practical work to implement the EU acquis. Moldova, like Ukraine, has been an EU candidate country since 2022. At the end of 2023, EU Member States decided to open accession negotiations with both countries.
The media delegation includes representatives from Radio Moldova, TV8, Realitatea Press Group, AGORA, NordNews, and CU SENS.
During their visit from 18 to 21 June, members of the Moldovan media meet with the European Commission Representation in Latvia, journalists at Delfi.lv, the staff of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, the Director for Strategic Communications at the State Chancellery, diplomats from the Moldovan Embassy, and representatives from a Moldovan diaspora company.
