The Republic of Moldova has a real chance to start accession negotiations before the end of this year. The optimistic message comes from the Romanian MEP Siegfried Mureșan, according to whom Moldova is making considerable progress in the implementation of reforms.

Last June, Moldova obtained EU candidate status. Siegfried Mureșan believes that granting this status was an enormous display of trust showed to Moldova by the member states.

“The Republic of Moldova has acted in full European spirit. Since the people of Moldova clearly showed their desire for modernization, reformation, closer ties with the European Union, that is exactly why the European Union is willing to help. That is why, after the Republic of Moldova submitted its application for accession, in just three months, the European Commission recommended granting candidate status. Subsequently, all the member states unanimously decided in favor. It all happened in just three months. In the case of Romania, for example, the whole process, from submitting the application to obtaining candidate status, took four years”, said MEP Siegfried Mureșan during a Radio Moldova broadcast.

Moldova’s candidate status came with nine conditions to be fulfilled before accession negotiations could begin. They include the justice reform, amendments to the electoral legislation, combating corruption, de-oligachrization and others.

“The first evaluations by the European Commission show that the implementation of these reforms is going well. Of the nine reforms, some are fully implemented, some are in the process of being implemented, and some are being worked on. We expect that this autumn, based on the completion of these nine reforms, the European Commission will issue a recommendation as to whether and when to start accession negotiations. After this recommendation, the member states will have to take a unanimous decision. I am confident that if the European Commission issues the recommendation to start negotiations, the member states will green-light the process. Things are moving forward. If they advance in the coming weeks the way they have advanced over the past year, I think we have a real chance to decide to start accession negotiations before the end of this year”, declared the Romanian MEP.

In October, the European Commission is expected to publish a report evaluating the progress in implementing the nine recommendations. Later, in December, the European Council will decide whether or not to start accession negotiations with Moldova.