President of Moldova Maia Sandu called on residents of the country who have citizenship of other European countries to participate in elections to the European Parliament for the sake of European integration of the country.
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“I appeal to those who already have European citizenship, regardless of whether they have a passport from Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, France or another European Union state. From June 6 to 9, elections to the European Parliament will take place, and Moldovans will vote for the European a parliament that supports Moldova’s accession to the EU is important for the entire country,” Sandu said in a statement posted on social networks.
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She noted that on June 9, 52 polling stations throughout the country will be opened in Moldova, of which 13 will be in Chisinau.
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The EU summit on December 14 decided to launch negotiations on future membership of the European Union with Ukraine and Moldova. In June 2022, the EU granted EU candidate country status to Ukraine and Moldova, 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.
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The status of an EU candidate country, as well as the start of negotiations, does 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 rather long journey towards joining the EU. Turkey has been in candidate status since 1999, and has been “conducting” membership negotiations with the EU since 2005, North Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005, Montenegro since 2010, Serbia since 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU in 2013; the process took 10 years.
