The implementation of the nine recommendations of the European Commission following the obtaining of the EU candidate status does not mean that accession negotiations will be opened immediately. Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu said that after the given recommendations are met and the European institutions carry out assessments, Moldova could receive one more set of recommendations. Moldova can come closer to the EU only by strengthening the capacities of public institutions and this implies that we must have skillful and well-paid people, IPN reports.
The official noted that the obtaining of the EU candidate status is the merit of the Moldovan government as the war in Ukraine didn’t make the EU to grant the same status also to Georgia. The authorities are now focusing on the implementation of the nine actions recommended by the European Commission.
“The actions planned for next year include the fulfillment of the conditions of the European Commission. Next autumn, the European Commission will produce an assessment report on the progress made by the Republic of Moldova. In Brussels, I had meetings with foreign affairs ministers of European states and the European Commissioner for Enlargement said that after it is demonstrated that we made sufficient progress on these nine recommendations, we could be given one more set of recommendations and accession negotiations could be opened later,” Nicu Popescu stated in the talk show “Secrets of the Power” on JurnalTV channel.
According to the official, strengthening the capacities of the public administration is one of the EC recommendations. Owing to the low salaries, upright and skilled persons are discouraged from applying for state posts. Also, the justice sector reform remains a priority for the government.
“Of all the recommendations, four refer to the justice sector, one to the fight against organized crime and one to the adoption of a law on deoligarchization and reduction of oligarchs’ influence on the political and economic spheres. The rest of the recommendations refer to public life transparency. The accession to the EU implies functional institutions and this means relatively well paid people. Without trained people in ministries and agencies, it will be very hard to do something. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has two sections that work on the European integration and we have only nine or ten persons there. We are in the processing of hiring diplomats who will work on the European files. Owing to the low salaries, we do not manage to attract people. The persons are not interested in taking at least the written test after they submit the file,” stated Nicu Popescu.
On June 23, 2022, the Republic of Moldova was granted the EU candidate status alongside Ukraine. According to the implementation schedule, the nine recommendations of the European Commission should be implemented by June 2023.
