These days, the School of Advanced Journalism continues the course of Political Journalism. The last module, International and European Journalism, is aimed to acquaint young journalists with specifics, documents and information about the European Union, relations between Moldova and the EU, the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Area with the EU, and the role of the media in covering these topics. To help students understand EU topics, the course trainer, Sorina Stefarta, invited Dionis Cenusa, political analyst and expert of “Expert-Grup” center, to a discussion club.

Discussion began with an overview of the European Union and relations between Chisinau and Brussels. The guest spoke to students about technical and financial assistance provided to our country by the European community, about the Association Agreement, about the European Council’s latest conclusions on Moldova, and about the problems the country faces currently.

The students wanted to learn more about the citizens’ perception of integration into the EU. Dionis Cenusa says that opinion polls, which have been increasingly criticized lately, show a decline in the number of people supporting Moldova’s integration into the EU in favor of those who support integration into the Eurasian Union. That, in the expert’s opinion, is due, among other things, to the fact that this topic is not covered in the media. “Very few journalists write about what is really happening in the Eurasian Union. The media should pay more attention to the situation in this union and cover topics about it,” the analyst said.

At the end of the discussion, Dionis Cenusa suggested to future journalists to be more curious, to follow the official websites of European institutions and analytical portals, always seek information from primary sources, ask questions and look for answers. “Be very careful when you write about the EU and the European integration,” the guest concluded.