Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of Moldova Kristina Gerasimova said that the republic must complete negotiations on accession to the EU by 2028 if it plans to become part of it already in 2030.
⠀
Earlier, the Moldovan authorities announced that they intend to implement the plan to join the European Union by 2030.
⠀
“If we propose to join the EU by 2030, we must complete negotiations by the end of 2027 or the beginning of 2028. The European institutions are open to 2030 as an optimistic date for our accession to the European Union. At the same time, EU states are completely open us,” Gerasimova told reporters.
⠀
She admitted that this is a rather optimistic plan, but the republic must take advantage of the goodwill of the Europeans.
⠀
In June 2022, the EU granted Ukraine and Moldova the status of EU candidate countries, setting several strict conditions for the formal start of accession negotiations. The EU has repeatedly admitted that such a decision was largely symbolic in order to support Kyiv and Chisinau in their confrontation with Moscow.
⠀
At the same time, the status of a candidate country in itself, as well as the start of negotiations, does not necessarily mean that countries will join the European Union; these steps also do not oblige Brussels to anything. Turkey has been an EU candidate since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, and Serbia since 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU – this happened in 2013, the process took 10 years.
