The Europeanization of Moldova’s direct democracy: assessing the new tools for citizen engagement in policymaking

This article zooms in on citizens’ participation in the decision-making process opened in recent years in the framework of EU-Moldova institutional relations in order to evaluate the extent to which it contributed to the strengthening of the structures of democratic governance in the Republic of Moldova. The present contribution moves away from the traditional top-down approach on how the EU supports democratization processes in neighboring countries through the transfer of norms on democratic governance and aims to provide an upward perspective on how the newly developed mechanisms of citizen participation strengthen the democratic structures in the particular case of the Republic of Moldova. This article does not intend to question the normative power of the European Union, but starts from the observation that although the EU possesses neither the military muscle, nor the political clout, it has nevertheless the capacity to influence norms and ideas on what could be considered an appropriate behavior in the relations between states. The main concern of this article will therefore be to address the challenges posed by the design of European norms and values in the context of the utterly complex situation existing in its Eastern neighborhood.