Moldova must be immediately accepted into the EU so that it gets rid of Russia’s influence, Romanian MEP Monica Macovei said in a program on Radio Free Europe, IPN reports.

“When there is a political crisis, crisis solutions must be identified. I consider that Moldova should be immediately accepted into the EU so as to pull it out of Russia’s political and economic influence. Surely it is not ready and has yet a lot to do in agriculture, transport, justice and administration. But it is a crisis and, instead of letting it in the hands of the Russians, we’d better accept it and adopt a special mechanism for monitoring the way it does reforms and give it a special status,” said the MEP.

Monica Macovei noted she heard that attempts are made to buy MPs from Chisinau in order to thwart the signing and ratification of the Association Agreement.

The Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union is to be signed on June 27. For the accord to take effect, it must be ratified by Moldova’s Parliament and by the legislative bodies of the EU member states.