The start of the accession negotiations is conditional on the progress made by Moldova in meeting the nine conditions formulated by the European Commission, said the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Moldova Janis Mazeiks. According to the European diplomat, the faster the European Council ascertains that the Republic of Moldova fulfilled the nine conditions, the quicker the accession negotiations will be launched, IPN reports.
“What we saw in the period after the European Commission issued its opinion and after the European Council formulated its conclusion is that the Republic of Moldova has really worked a lot on these nine points. The authorities agreed an action plan in August, which says how they intend to fulfill the nine conditions, what each of them contains and other details. We also saw that the National Commission for European Integration managed by the President decided to shorten the time limit for the implementation of some of the actions of that plan. I think this is a very good sign of the Republic of Moldova’s commitment. It is a good sign that the Republic of Moldova goes on also in problematic areas where progress needs to be made,” Janis Mazeiks stated in an interview with RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.
According to the ambassador, for the EU it is important for things not only to be done, but to be done properly. “Evidently, you can do things faster, but the quality of the process will be affected if broad consultations are not held. We would like to avoid this thing. Sometimes, you can enjoy one chance, while other times – more chances, but this means that the laws that could have been made much better gradually during the next few years will have to be repeatedly amended,” said the Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova.
Asked what Brussels is dissatisfied with in the way in which the government of Moldova does these reforms, the diplomat said the dissatisfaction is related to the discussed questions, namely not to hurry things up. “In the case of pre-vetting, we saw rather many frustrations related to the fact that this process is not faster, but namely this is an area in which things should be done painstakingly as such fundamental changes cannot be made every three years. That’s why, based on the experience of other countries, we see that it is important to perform this process appropriately so as to achieve good results, even if this takes time. I think good results will be obtained in this process this way. I consider this pre-vetting process is a success story to be,” the EU Ambassador told RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service.
There are estimates that the accession process will last until 2030 or that it will last for tens of years, but this depends on how the European integration commitment is fulfilled. “Here, I can refer to the experience of my country. When Latvia wanted to join the European Union, the governments changed, but no matter who was in power, there was always a clear commitment for European integration. But we also saw other states that had held the EU candidate status for a very long period of time as the European integration for some of the governments there mattered a lot, while for others didn’t matter. Surely, the assessments of the progress made in implementing the Community acquis can stagnate. That’s why the answer is with the people of the Republic of Moldova and the politicians here,” said Janis Mazeiks.
