Between 2007 and 2009 and 2011–2012,he was researcher then head of program at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) office in London.[6] In 2010 and 2012–2013,he was Foreign Policy advisor and European Integration advisor to the Prime MinisterVlad Filat. In that post he dealt,besides his core foreign policy responsibilities,with reforms related to EU-Moldova visa-liberalization process and Moldova's accession to the European Common Aviation Area. Between 2013 and 2018,he worked as a senior analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies,the EU's official foreign policy think tank.[7][8][9] In 2018-2019,and 2020-2021 he returned to ECFR as Head of the Wider Europe Programme.
Popescu with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in April 2022
He has published three books and over 60 academic or policy publications. His articles appeared in the Financial Times,New York Times,the Guardian,Foreign Policy,Le Monde,Le Soir,and Euractiv,and he had a blog on the EUobserver.[10]
Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration
In the early weeks of his first term in office while the Sandu Cabinet exercised power,he called for the accession of Moldova to the European Union. Among his key priorities were:accession to the EU,deepening the relationship with Romania,not least through the acceleration of joint infrastructure projects - bridges,energy interconnection and roaming liberalisation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration,under the leadership of Nicu Popescu,condemned from the first hours the war started by the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Since February 2022,Popescu has played a crucial role in managing various crises resulting from the war in Ukraine,including the refugee and energy crises. He played a key role in mobilising international attention and support for Moldova,as well as in accelerating the EU accession process for Moldova. He was credited with building a ‘diplomatic bastion’that helped protect Moldova in the dangerous geopolitical environment shaped by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.[11]
Popescu at G7 Summit in Germany,May 2022.
Under his mandate,on June 23,2022,the Republic of Moldova obtained the status of a candidate country for EU accession. Subsequently,on December 14,2023,following a year and a half of implementing the European Commission's recommendations under the leadership of Minister Popescu,the European Council decided to initiate accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova. During this time,Moldova registered the best dynamic in EU acquis implementation among all EU candidate countries,according to the European Commission enlargement report of 8 November 2023.[12]
Minister Nicu Popescu at NATO Summit in Vilnius,July 2023.
Popescu played a key role in fostering alliances to support Moldova,engaging in approximately 160 meetings with counterparts from 55 states. Additionally,he conducted 76 official visits,and contributed to the Moldova Support Platform,jointly led by France,Germany,and Romania,which brought together more than 50 states and organizations.
During his mandate he played a key role in enhancing security and defence cooperation with the EU, NATO and key member states,leading to the establishment of European Union Partnership Mission Moldova in May 2023,increased military support through the European Peace Facility,and increased assistance for the modernisation of Moldova's national army from multiple partners including Romania,the US,Germany,France,Spain and others.
Popescu with French President Emmanuel Macron and IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva during Paris Peace Forum 2023
He collaborated with International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the EBRD,EIB,and CEB,successfully negotiating and signing Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation with the OECD. Additionally,he focused on attracting foreign investors,diversifying export markets,and overseeing the efficient operation of Solidarity Lanes for Ukraine.
With his Romanian and Ukrainian counterparts,they launched a new trilateral format of cooperation bringing together Moldova,Romania and Ukraine. He also played an important role in achieving roaming-liberalisation agreements first with Romania (2022),then with the entire EU (2023).
As chair of the organising committee,Nicu Popescu played a key role in organising the second summit of the European Political Community,which took place in Moldova on June 1,2023. Recognising his expertise and accomplishments,on June 7,2023,Nicu Popescu was invited to join the esteemed Council of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). On 24 January 2024,Moldova's President Maia Sandu decorated him with the highest state distinction,Order of the Republic,praising his ‘visionary’role in foreign policy,commitment for Moldova's European integration,and significant contributions to the opening of accession negotiations with the EU.[13]
After securing official candidate membership status for Moldova in the EU in 2022 and securing the latter's approval to open accession negotiations with Moldova in December 2023,Popescu announced on 24 January 2024 that he was resigning from the government effective citing personal reasons.[14]
The Limits of Enlargement-lite:European and Russian Power in the Troubled Neighbourhood,ECFR Policy Report,June 2009.
A Power Audit of EU-Russia Relations, co-authored with Mark Leonard,Policy Paper 1,European Council on Foreign Relations,November 2007.
EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood:Reluctant Involvement in Conflict Resolution, European Foreign Affairs Review 14:4,pp. 457–477,2009.
Re-setting the Eastern Partnership in Moldova, Policy Brief 199,Centre for European Policy Studies,November 2009,Brussels.
European and Russian Neighbourhood Policies Compared, co-authored with Andrew Wilson in Journal of Southeast European and Black Sea Studies,9:3,2009,pp. 317 –331.
Can the EU win the peace in Georgia? ECFR Policy Brief,24 August 2008,Nicu Popescu,Mark Leonard and Andrew Wilson.
Internationalizing the Georgia-Abkhazia Conflict Resolution Process:Why a Greater European Role is Needed, GMF Policy Brief;Ron Asmus,Svante E. Cornell,Antje Herrberg,and Nicu Popescu,June 2008.
Related Research Articles
Moldova,officially the Republic of Moldova,is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe,on the northeastern corner of the Balkans. The country spans a total of 33,483 km2 and has a population of approximately 2.5 million as of January 2023. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north,east,and south. The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău,the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
Relations between the European Union (EU) and Moldova are currently shaped via the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP),an EU foreign policy instrument dealing with countries bordering its member states.
Moldova–Russia relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation,two Eastern European,post-Soviet,ex-communist countries. Russian support for the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) and a substantial Russian military presence therein strained Moldovan relations with Russia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is one of the fourteen ministries of the Government of Moldova.
Moldova–Ukraine relations are the bilateral/diplomatic/foreign relations between the sovereign states of Moldova and Ukraine. The Moldova–Ukraine border is 985 kilometers. Ukrainians are the third largest ethnic group in Moldova,behind Moldovans and Romanians. Both countries were former republics of the Soviet Union and are also the poorest countries in Europe. Both countries have applied for membership to join the European Union in 2022.
Official relations between Moldova and NATO began in 1992 when Moldova joined the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. However,as Moldova's neutrality is enshrined in its constitution,there are no official plans for Moldova to join the organization.
Dorin Recean is a Moldovan economist and politician serving as Prime Minister of Moldova since February 2023. Since 2022 he has also served as Presidential Advisor on Defense and National Security,and Secretary of Moldova's Supreme Security Council. He previously served as Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova from July 2012 to February 2015. He has extensive experience in the private sector and in the IT industry with a specialisation in data,including big data,and information analysis. He also worked in development institutions and was previously a lecturer at several universities.
Maia Sandu is a Moldovan politician who has been the President of Moldova since 24 December 2020. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and former Prime Minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019,when the government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence. Sandu was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2014 to 2015,and again in 2019. Sandu was elected President of Moldova in a landslide victory during the 2020 Moldovan presidential election. The first female president of Moldova,Sandu is a strong supporter of the accession of Moldova to the European Union,overseeing Moldova's granting of candidate status,and is considered 'pro-Western'. She has criticised and opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supported subsequent steps to reduce Moldova's economic dependence on Russia,frequently expressing sympathy and support for Ukraine in the conflict. Sandu has made anti-corruption,economic reform and liberalisation a central part of her political platform,as well as closer integration with Europe. In February 2023,she accused Russia of seeking to stage a coup of the Moldovan government and has continued to seek to reduce Russia's influence over the country.
The accession of Moldova to the European Union (EU) is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on 11 July 2021. Following the resignation of Ion Chicu,the position of Prime Minister became vacant,with the Parliament being obligated to form a new government within three months. After the expiration of the constitutionally mandated period and two failed attempts to win parliamentary approval for the proposed cabinets,the Constitutional Court ruled on 15 April that the circumstances justifying a dissolution of the parliament were met. President Maia Sandu signed the decree dissolving the Parliament on 28 April and snap parliamentary elections were called on.
In mid-2019,a sequence of events following the 2019 Moldovan parliamentary election –and the subsequent attempts to form and install a new government,culminated in the positions of Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament,as well as the powers and duties of the President,being claimed by competing individuals.
Natalia Gavrilița is a Moldovan economist and politician who served as prime minister of Moldova from 2021 until her resignation in February 2023 after failure to get her reform package enacted.
The Gavrilița Cabinet was the Cabinet of Moldova,led by former Finance Minister Natalia Gavrilița from 6 August 2021 until 16 February 2023.
The Second European Political Community Summit was a meeting of the European Political Community held on 1 June 2023 at Mimi Castle,Bulboaca,35 kilometres from Chișinău,Moldova. It was attended by forty-five heads of states and governments,as well as leaders of European Union institutions.
Starting in late 2022,Moldova suffered an energy crisis,the worst since its independence. Hugely influenced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine,caused when Russia's Gazprom reduced supplies.
Events from the year 2023 in Moldova.
Ruslan Bolbocean is a Moldovan diplomat who currently serves as State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova.
Luminița-Teodora Odobescu is a Romanian ambassador and diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2023. She previously served as presidential advisor in the European Affairs Department from 2021 to 2023.
The European Moldova National Assembly was a pro-European rally held on 21 May 2023 at the Great National Assembly Square in Chișinău,Moldova. It had approximately 100,000 participants and counted with the participation of the President of Moldova Maia Sandu,the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola and various Moldovan public figures. The Moldovan diaspora also took actions in support of the assembly. The most important resolutions of the assembly were a commitment to join the European Union (EU) by 2030,a consolidation of this project as a state objective of Moldova and a possible start of accession negotiations with the EU before the end of 2023.
A nationwide referendum is scheduled to be held in Moldova in autumn 2024 on whether the country should amend the Constitution of Moldova to include the Moldovan citizens' wish for European Union membership,in order to prevent future governments from derailing the country from its pro-European trajectory.
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