Friday’s sitting of Parliament started with the playing of the national anthem and the anthem of the European Union. Also, the EU flag was placed on MPs’ tables in the assembly hall. Speaker Igor Grosu said the European Council’s decision to open accession negotiations is a historic decision that had been long awaited, IPN reports.

“Yesterday, the European Council approved the opening of accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova. This way, I want to thank primarily all those present in this hall for the efforts you made, for the laws you adopted, for interminable, but necessary discussions you had with the citizens to explain how important the European integration process is, how important the opening of the accession negotiations is as a step towards full integration,” Igor Grosu stated in Parliament.

He also thanked the officials in the Parliament, the Government and the President’s Office, who are probably less visible, but did huge work to prepare documents and reports and to communicate. “I surely want to thank the citizens who put their trust in us, who supported us and believed that this is possible,” noted the Speaker.

The European Council on December 14 decided to open accession talks with Moldova and Ukraine. It also decided to grant candidate status to Georgia, and said the bloc would open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached and invited the European Commission to report by March with a view to taking such a decision.