Ion Tăbârță, political expert, Institute for Development and Social Initiatives (IDIS) „Viitorul”
As part of the European Union’s efforts to support vaccination in partner countries, this August the European Commission increased its assistance package from €40 million to €75 million to deploy safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and speed up the vaccination campaigns in the Eastern Partnership countries. With this new €35 million assistance package, the EU seeks to substantially increase access to vaccines in the Eastern Partnership region amid the global vaccine shortage.
StrategEast has interviewed leading EaP experts to hear their thoughts on the EU’s role in vaccination process in their home countries. Here are the answers from Moldova.
Do you believe this aid has a decisive role in ending the pandemic?
Starting with August 2020, the Republic of Moldova is part of the COVAX platform, which supports the research, development and production of a wide range of vaccines and ensures equal access to these sera. Subsequently, by the decision no. 41 of January 13, 2021 of the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission, the National Plan for Immunization against COVID-19 was adopted. This document describes the process of organizing vaccination, which includes several elements: from the authorization and obtaining of vaccines to the stages of immunization and monitoring of vaccinated persons.
On March 2, 2021, the population of Covid-19 vaccination officially started in the Republic of Moldova. According to official data, after half a year of immunization of the population in the Republic of Moldova, the official number of total doses administered on September 2 is 1,289,764, of which 695,850 are people vaccinated with two doses. In percentage terms, the national coverage with a vaccine dose is over 21%, and the coverage with the complete scheme is close to 20%. Among the fully vaccinated medical workers, the percentage is almost 90%.
It should be noted that, compared to other states, in the Republic of Moldova the vaccination process started later. That is why a good part of the Moldovan citizens, holders of Moldovan and Romanian citizenship, were vaccinated in large numbers in Romania, until the beginning of the vaccination process in the Republic of Moldova. These vaccination citizens abroad (there are also Moldovan citizens vaccinated in other EU countries and in Russia) are not registered in the official vaccination platform (www.vaccinare.gov.md) of the Republic of Moldova. There is no known official number of Moldovan citizens vaccinated in Romania (they are registered in the official vaccination data of the Romanian state), but unofficially this figure is estimated at several tens of thousands of people.
The delayed start of the vaccination process in the Republic of Moldova is explained by the fact that the state authorities did not provide the public health system with vaccine to immunize the population. Although the Republic of Moldova joined the COVAX platform in August 2020, until the beginning of 2021, the Moldovan authorities did not negotiate the procurement of vaccines with vaccine companies. Because of this, when the vaccination process had already started in European countries, the Republic of Moldova did not have the vaccine to start immunizing the population.
In fact, at the beginning the vaccination program in the Republic of Moldova was based on the availability of vaccines to immunize the population. Given that the Republic of Moldova has not made prior reservations of vaccine doses, the vaccination process depended on vaccine deliveries from abroad, mainly from Romania and the European Union. The very beginning of vaccination in the Republic of Moldova took place following a donation of 200,000 doses offered by Romania, thanks to the support provided through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic vaccination period, the European Union has continuously supported the Republic of Moldova, using the COVAX platform to donate the vaccine doses needed to immunize the population. The Republic of Moldova was the first European country to benefit from the EU vaccine sharing mechanism through the COVAX platform. By the beginning of September 2021, the Republic of Moldova received 1,611,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Of which 570,100 are AstraZeneca, 302,500 – Janssen, 280,800 – Pfizer-BioNTech, 206,000 – Sputnik V, 152,000 – Sinopharm, 100,000 – Sinovac. The vast majority of these doses of vaccines received by the Republic of Moldova were donations, mainly from European Union countries. In general, for the time being, the Republic of Moldova has been vaccinated mainly from donations.
Do you think this move will speed up the socio-economic recovery of your country?
Immediately after the Republic of Moldova declared European integration in 2005 as the guiding vector of its foreign policy, the European Union became the main trading partner of the Republic of Moldova. Since 2006, the stable EU has ranked first in the geography of Moldovan commodity exports. During this period, the figure of exports increased from 537 thousand USD in 2006 to over 1,6 billion USD in 2020. In the years 2018-2019 this figure amounted to over 1,8 billion USD; the decrease from 2020 by about 200 thousand USD being explained by the negative impact of the pandemic on economic processes.
Following the launch of the Eastern Partnership by the EU in 2009 and the coming of alliances for European integration to the government of the Republic of Moldova, the European Union’s assistance to Chisinau has increased considerably. In recent years, the EU has been the largest donor to the Republic of Moldova and one of the most important development partners. During the pandemic period, within the Eastern Partnership program, the Republic of Moldova enjoyed the full support of the European Union. Through the response package to COVID-19 in the total amount of over 127 million euro in the form of grants, the EU helps the health system in the Republic of Moldova to get through the pandemic period more easily.
EU support to the Republic of Moldova to deal with the pandemic focused on three directions:
- Support for emergency needs. It mainly refers to the support provided at the beginning of the pandemic, between March and May 2020. It refers to the help of the following: respirators, gloves, goggles, medical gowns, disinfectant, digital thermometers, bactericidal lamps with rays ultraviolet etc.;
- Support for the resilience of the health system. The European Union adopted a € 15 million resilience contract in December 2020 to increase the long-term resilience of the Moldovan health system. In January 2021, the EU, in cooperation with the WHO, launched a € 5 million program to provide additional equipment for the health system and support in the introduction of the vaccine;
- Support for socio-economic recovery and vulnerable groups. These are disposable protective overalls delivered to people with disabilities and care staff, protective equipment for social workers, projects to support social services, economic development and vulnerable groups affected by the pandemic, supporting small and medium business in rural areas, budget support for police reform to combat COVID-19 etc.
In addition to the COVID-19 response package, in April 2020, the EU adopted a COVID-19 emergency macro-financial assistance program for the Republic of Moldova, amounting to 100 million euros in extremely favorable loans. The first tranche, of 50 million euros, was received by the Republic of Moldova in November 2020. The second tranche is to be delivered by the end of 2021, depending on whether the Republic of Moldova will meet the conditions set out in the loan agreement with the EU.
It is obvious, as in the case of others in the world, the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus has hit hard in the Moldovan economy. Restrictions imposed by the authorities to stop the spread of the infection have had a disastrous impact on the business environment. The most affected branches were transport, HoReCa, tourism, trade, services, but also other fields of activity. Most companies have diminished their investment activity, being constrained by the insufficiency of financial means. According to the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, the pandemic crisis generated a contraction of 14% of the national economy in the second quarter of 2020 and 7.2% in the first half.
The Chisinau government did not have an anti-crisis plan that could have mitigated the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and did nothing to help the business community. The Moldovan economy has been “kept alive” by remittances from Moldovan migrants working abroad. In 2020, money transfers from the diaspora have increased every month in a row. For example, in September 2020 the diaspora transferred through banks by 48.1% more than in September 2019.
During 2020, Moldova’s relations with the European Union and development partners were not the best. It did not stop the EU from supporting the Republic of Moldova in combating the pandemic, but it substantially limited the potential of the support that Brussels could have given to Chisinau to more easily overcome the harmful consequences of the pandemic on the Republic of Moldova. With the change of government in Chisinau, after the early parliamentary elections of July 11, 2021, we have all the prerequisites to anticipate an improvement in relations between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova. Throughout the pandemic, the EU has consistently helped the Republic of Moldova to cope with the pandemic and overcome its negative consequences. But, really, the socio-economic recovery of the Republic of Moldova will occur depending on the capacity of the government in Chisinau to carry out the reforms of modernization of state institutions, which are provided in the Association Agreement.
