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<p>When the Republic of Moldova gained independence after the dissolution of the USSR, the new country adopted a  position of neutrality in world politics. Since then, Moldova's leaders have become interested in joining the European Union (EU), but there is internal debate about how best to gain admission to this important European institution. Some political leaders state that Moldova could achieve EU membership while maintaining its neutral strategic status. Other politicians, however, call for abolishing neutrality, and advocate Moldova's EU integration through NATO membership.  While states which chose a status of permanent neutrality were traditionally seen as entirely aside from multinational institutional security processes, the post-Cold War EU enlargement process experienced admission of permanent neutral countries such as Austria. Additionally, over the years, the EU also accepted states that had been previously granted NATO membership, such as Latvia.  This study analyses Austria's neutral and Latvia's aligned EU integration processes and tests them against Moldova's realities in order to see how Moldova can integrate into the EU in the fastest time and at the least possible cost. The thesis concludes that though the Moldovan status of permanent neutrality seems fairly irrelevant, this strategy should be maintained for the time being in order to reduce anticipated Russian objections, and thus facilitate the Republic of Moldova integration process into the European Union.
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<br>Subjects: Neutrality; Strategy</div>
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Talcan, Igor</div>
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