Moldova will have to make additional efforts to speed up preparations for joining the European Union, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Kristina Gerasimova said.
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Previously, the European Commission published enlargement reports assessing the progress of candidate countries. It reports that Ukraine and Moldova, if certain conditions are met, will only be able to begin substantive negotiations on EU membership in 2025.
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“The enlargement package published by the European Commission shows that Moldova’s efforts last year are bringing tangible results. We have made progress in 31 of the 33 chapters envisaged in the EU accession action plan… There is still a lot of work ahead, I invite civil society to closely consideration of the conclusions of the Enlargement Package regarding Moldova and invite everyone to a discussion on November 6 to jointly determine ways to accelerate progress to prepare the Republic of Moldova for accession to the EU,” Gerasimova wrote on her Facebook page.
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The Deputy Prime Minister noted that Moldova’s level of readiness for EU membership has increased significantly in five key areas – energy, ecology, education and culture, consumer protection, regional politics and the customs union.
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In March last year, Moldovan President Maia Sandu signed an application for the republic to join the European Union, noting that the process of European integration needs to be accelerated. The heads of state and government of the European Union at the summit in Brussels on June 23, 2022 approved the granting of candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova for membership in the union. The European Commission has set nine conditions for Moldova that the country must fulfill in order to join the EU.
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The status of an EU candidate country, as well as the start of negotiations, do not necessarily mean that the country will join the European Union; these steps also do not oblige Brussels to anything. Obtaining candidate status is only the beginning of a long journey towards EU accession. Turkey has been in candidate status since 1999, and since 2005 has been negotiating membership with the EU, North Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, Serbia since 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU – this happened in 2013, the process took 10 years.
