The Referendum - A True Expression of the People's Will

This publication addresses the significance of the referendum as a constitutionally regulated form of directly exercising national sovereignty by the people of the Republic of Moldova. The Republic of Moldova aspires to build a state governed by the rule of law, and one of the most important objectives of the country's sociopolitical and geostrategic evolution is joining the European Union. According to the author, such crucial objectives for the fate of the people and the future of the sovereign and independent state of the Republic of Moldova can, by definition, only be achieved through responsible cooperation between the government and the people. In this sense, the referendum is one of the most appropriate constitutional exercises aimed at involving the people and civil society in the act of governing the state. The publication analyzes, from both a legislative and practical organizational standpoint, the experience of the constitutional republican referendum held on October 20, 2024, which aimed to express the will of the people of the Republic of Moldova on the issue of the country's accession to the EU. The article pursues objectives such as: analyzing constitutional and other national legislative regulations regarding the conduct and significance of the referendum; studying the specific normative framework under which the October 20, 2024 referendum was organized in Moldova; evaluating the results of this constitutional republican referendum; examining, from a comparative perspective, the practices of conducting referendums on EU accession in other European countries; conducting a comparative analysis of the constitutional provisions related to the formalization procedure for accession to the EU's founding treaties and their revisions, as stipulated in Moldova's Constitution following the referendum and in the Romanian Constitution; assessing the importance of the October 20, 2024 referendum and estimating the prospects for further capitalizing on its outcomes. In the research process, methods appropriate to the stated objectives were used, such as analysis and synthesis; deduction; the comparative method; the historical method, among others. The research concludes that the will of the people be expressed during the Referendum on the Republic of Moldova's accession to the European Union, held on October 20, 2024 - having supreme legal authority - is one of the most important, if not the principal, guarantees of the irreversibility of Moldova's political direction toward EU accession.