Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The integration of ESG criteria into economic and regulatory decision-making represents one of the most significant transformations of the European business environment over the past decade, with direct implications for EU candidate countries. The Republic of Moldova, engaged in an active process of alignment with the EU acquis, faces a pronounced structural gap between European normative requirements and the actual capacity to implement ESG reporting at national level. The paper presents a comparative quantitative analysis of the ESG profile of the Republic of Moldova in relation to Romania, Poland and Ukraine, based on a panel of 32 indicators from the World Bank Sovereign ESG Data Profile database, for the period 2010 - 2024. The results highlight a gap between environmental indicators and the country's real development: low carbon emissions reflect not a genuine green transition, but industrial underdevelopment; deep social gaps are masked by mass emigration of the workforce, which artificially reduces internal social pressure; and the state's reduced capacity to govern effectively records a gradual improvement after 2016, under the impetus of the European integration process. The correlation analysis confirms that institutional governance simultaneously conditions environmental and social performance, imposing an integrated reform approach on the three ESG pillars.
Source: Vector European
Author: Olga Timofei
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7204198163