EU agrees to deploy Moldova mission to counter foreign interference

EU foreign ministers approved on Monday (24 April) the launch of a new civilian mission to be deployed in Moldova to help Chișinău face foreign interference and hybrid threats.

Called the EU Partnership Mission in Moldova (EUPM Moldova), the team of civilian advisors will run for two years.

Stefano Tomat, currently the EU diplomat services’ managing director of the Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC), is set to be appointed Civilian Operation Commander, while a head of mission leading operations on the ground will be appointed “in the near future”.

Besides focusing on crisis management, the mission aims to send a “political signal” to Russia that the EU supports Moldova, which has grappled with Russian influence since 1992, one EU diplomat told EURACTIV.

Multiple security scares have pushed Moldova to close its airspace several times to keep safe. As it depends entirely on Russian gas flowing through Ukraine for its energy consumption, the country has also been facing a severe energy crisis and looking towards the EU for relief.

Last February, Moldova’s President Maia Sandu warned Russia planned a coup d’État in the country, with her shortly having to restructure the government, which fell amid economic turmoil and increasing Russian pressure.

Countering hybrid threats

EUPM Moldova “shall contribute to enhancing the resilience of the security sector” of Moldova “in the areas of crisis management and hybrid threats, including cybersecurity and countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI),” the mandate text, seen by EURACTIV, reads.

One core task of the mission will be to “assist in enhancing resilience to hybrid threats”.

To do so, the member states foresee wide activities for “providing advice at a strategic level on developing strategies and policies for countering hybrid threats and foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI)”.

This includes “disinformation, for enhancing cybersecurity and for the protection of classified information”, the decision reads, which would include identifying and fixing the “needs for capacity building in the security sector for early warning, detection, identification, attribution of threats and the response to those threats”.

The other main task is to “strengthen the Moldovan crisis management structures focused on the security sector”.

The missions’ first aims at “identifying the needs” in “organisation, training and equipment”. This will then lead to ideas and implementations of solutions, the decision reads, without elaborating.

A budget of €3.5 million has been identified to cover the mission’s needs over the next four months, but “the financial reference amount for any subsequent period shall be decided by the Council”, the decision text states.

The limited amount and timeframe are also a result of the lack of money in the EU’s budget financing its civilian missions.

At the same time, the mission’s size remains to be determined, but it is to be “scalable and modular in nature so that it can, over time, adapt to changing realities”, an EU official said in an earlier internal memo on the matter.

Reforms for membership

The EU already conducts different activities in Moldova related to the reform and support of the security sector, such as with a border monitoring mission (EUBAM Moldova/Ukraine), a best practice sharing platform on tracking illicit trade from Ukraine and Frontex support.

The new mission could create links between the existing activities, a second EU diplomat told EURACTIV.

Despite internal turmoil, EU leaders granted official candidate status to the country last June, and Moldovan authorities have made a point about their commitment to reforms.

The mission, EU officials say, is also likely to help bring the country closer to EU standards.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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