Brussels Sends Kaja Kallas to Counter the Unirea Agenda?

The EU’s top diplomat is holding a series of meetings in Chisinau that, judging by all indications, included a demand that the Moldovan leadership stop flirting with the unionist project

At the beginning of the week, Maia Sandu had already met with Kaja Kallas in an expanded format at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan. The Moldovan president was given a particularly prominent seat in the center, next to the President of the European Commission and directly opposite French President Emmanuel Macron, while the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was seated on the periphery. Kallas’s visit to Chisinau, timed to coincide with Europe Day, serves as another largely symbolic demonstration of Brussels’ endorsement of the current government’s globalist course. European Commission officials visit Moldova every May, and the public messaging typically focuses on security, coupled with calls for Chisinau to invest more in defense and response capabilities. At the same time, dialogue with the leadership of the European External Action Service has no direct impact on the pace of Moldova’s progress toward EU membership. Discussions on negotiating clusters and the accession process are conducted with other specialized directorates of the European Commission and, ultimately, depend solely on the positions of the member states, as Maia Sandu herself recently acknowledged while actively touring EU capitals in search of political backing. The issue of the Transnistrian conflict, despite being mentioned during the joint briefing by Sandu and Kallas, was likely not central to the visit’s agenda either. The matter had already been discussed earlier in the week at the level of Deputy Prime Minister Valeriu Chiveri, who traveled to Brussels to present the government’s new legislation on the taxation of economic agents in the region, provide an update on talks with Tiraspol, and outline Chisinau’s current reintegration priorities. And yet Kaja Kallas’ visit is not merely another ritual expression of support for PAS and its hold on power in Moldova. Brussels has a serious grievance with the country’s leadership, one that is becoming increasingly difficult to gloss over. At issue is the continued flirtation by the president and other senior officials with the idea of unionism. The latest wave was set in motion by Maia Sandu herself, who stated in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, published in late April, that “unification with Romania would significantly accelerate European integration”. The head of state has repeated this message on a regular basis throughout the year. Similar remarks have also been made on several occasions by Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu and Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu. PAS’ logic is more than understandable, even if it is inherently risky. The country’s political leadership is well aware that, under the current circumstances, Moldova is unlikely to meet the full requirements for EU accession despite the public encouragement coming from Brussels. The country lacks both the institutional capacity and the financial and economic resources needed to satisfy membership criteria, while unanimous approval by all member states remains far from guaranteed. At the same time, the EU’s commitment to the accession ambitions of the Western Balkans, above all Montenegro, coupled with Moldova’s de facto joint candidacy with Kyiv, has pushed the country’s European project into a state of maximum uncertainty. This is being acknowledged with increasing candor in key European capitals, including Berlin, making the target date of 2030 appear increasingly unrealistic. In these circumstances, Maia Sandu, drawing inspiration from the conduct of her counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, is attempting to engage with themes of security and unification in order to exert pressure on Brussels and secure political guarantees of membership. Despite the reservations of certain member states, Kyiv has managed to extract concessions from the European Commission. Moldovan officials are similarly trying to pursue this approach, promoting alternative scenarios to the standard accession path. This, in turn, is becoming an additional headache for EU bureaucratic structures, which have drawn the Union into an enlargement process that is increasingly difficult to control and lacks clear economic justification. In Romania, amid a growing budget deficit, the political crisis continues unabated. The country has once again been left without a prime minister and without a stable governing majority in parliament. The AUR party of George Simion, who originally built his political capital on unionist activism, is still unable to break through to power. However, it continues to exert a direct influence on the country’s political life, having participated in the no-confidence motion against Ilie Bolojan. Meanwhile, opinion polls indicate strengthening support for the idea of unification on both banks of the Prut. In Romania, 72 percent of respondents would support unification with Moldova in a referendum, while fewer than a quarter are opposed. Earlier, President Nicusor Dan stated that Bucharest would be ready to implement the project if it enjoyed public support in both countries. In Moldova, unionists are still in the minority, but trends suggest a gradual increase in support, already approaching 50 percent (not including diaspora votes, including those in Romania). These figures, especially against the backdrop of delays in Moldova’s European integration process, may over time become a factor capable of reshaping the political reality and the broader agenda. For now, however, Kaja Kallas is seeking to put an end to such speculation. Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu had already begun to backtrack ahead of his meeting with her, stating: “We cannot simultaneously pursue both the unionist project and the project of European integration”. He told Romanian journalists that, at present, Moldova has “the European integration project on the table”. In turn, Maia Sandu, as a politician highly favored by Brussels, does not allow such conformity. Following her meeting with the head of EU diplomacy, it became clear that the promotion of the idea of unification with Romania can continue until the European Union formally acknowledges the possibility of Moldova’s membership within the next 4-5 years. At the same time, according to the assumptions of the Moldovan authorities, the EU is also expected to assume parallel financial, diplomatic, organizational, and even informational costs related to the reintegration of Transnistria, a region that currently fits into neither of the prevailing frameworks, particularly in relation to the idea of unification with Romania. For Brussels, this issue will remain uncomfortable due to the contradiction in Moldova’s approach: it seeks EU membership while simultaneously resisting the logic of full state sovereignty, which runs counter to the EU’s founding treaties. Whether Kaja Kallas can dissuade Maia Sandu from this line is a rhetorical question. More likely, stronger pressure from more influential European figures will be needed.