The EU Ambassador to Moldova Janis Mažeiks said the process of obtaining the status of EU candidate country will depend on the responses to the questions about Moldova’s readiness for European integration. Based on a questionnaire, the EU will assess the country’s preparedness to join the European community. All the member states understand the reasons that made Moldova subscribe to the sanctions imposed against the Russian Federation only partially, IPN reports.
The diplomat said that after the application for EU membership is submitted, a difficult path towards obtaining the candidate status needs to be covered. The applications filed by the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia are being examined by European institutions and the filling out of a questionnaire to determine the country’s preparedness for accession is the next stage.
“If we look at the experience of other states that filed applications for membership, we see that this process implies the completion of a questionnaire by the country, based on which the economic, political criteria and the level of compliance with the Community acquis, which is a set of rules of the European Union that need to be obeyed by the Republic of Moldova, are assessed. But the calendar of this process will be clearer the next weeks. The questionnaire will be followed by the second stage, which is the opinion of the member states because such a decision requires unanimity. It is a process that is yet being discussed in the European Union and the process can be affected by the Republic of Moldova’s responses to the questionnaire questions. Based on these responses, we will be able to see how the Republic of Moldova develops and what should be yet done to move to the next stage,” Janis Mažeiks stated in the talk show “Thursday with Liliana Barbăroșie” on the public TV channel.
The EU ambassador noted that no state of the European community condemns the Republic of Moldova for not subscribing to the sanctions imposed against Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. He praised Moldova for its trenchant position of condemnation of this war and said that he realizes the vulnerabilities that prevent the country from fully aligning itself with the sanctions.
“As to the sanctions imposed against Russia, the EU took note of the position of each country on these sanctions. We realize the reasons for which the Republic of Moldova was unable to subscribe to the sanctions. The reasons were explained to us by the senior administration. However, Moldova didn’t remain aside and joined the UN resolution and not only voted in favor of this resolution on the suspension of Russia’s rights of membership, but also formed part of the group of countries that actively promoted this action. Moldova clearly formulated its stance on the war in Ukraine,” said Janis Mažeiks.
Earlier, both President Maia Sandu and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Nicu Popescu announced that Moldova supported the sanctions against Russia in the financial-banking sector. Also, Maia Sandu said that Moldova will not allow Russia to avoid the international sanctions through the agency of Moldovan banks.
