Next week, the European Commission will present its Opinion by which it will recommend the EU member states to take the next steps in the relationship with the Republic of Moldova, based on the responses provided in the EU accession questionnaire, Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, stated at the end of his visit to Brussels. The official paid a working visit to Brussels to promote the country project - the obtaining of the candidate country status, IPN reports.
“The objective of my visit to Brussels is dual: on the one hand, it is a very important moment for promoting our European perspective. This is a very important moment for doing our best to influence the position of the member states, the European Commission so that the Republic of Moldova during the next few weeks makes progress towards the accession to the EU. Our hope is to obtain a clear EU entry perspective so that we gradually advance towards the candidate country status,” said the official.
Nicu Popescu also said that he took the occasion to persuade as many interlocutors as possible, as many of the authors of the European Commission’s Opinion as possible, that the Republic of Moldova is a European state that deserves to join the European Union, with the assistance of the European institutions.
“Another as important goal is related to our necessities to diversify exports of agricultural products. You know well that our farmers were seriously affected by this war, by the blocking of the transport routes and, together with the colleagues from the Government, with the Prime Minister, with colleagues from the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, during the last few months we worked a lot to persuade the European Union to increase our agricultural export quotas, especially on fruit and vegetables, our hope being to achieve a particular result in the near future,” stated the official.
In Brussels, Nicu Popescu had a meeting with the European Commissioner for Agriculture with whom he discussed the increasing of quotas and of Moldova’s capacities to export fruit and vegetables to the EU so as to make sure that the Moldovan farmers who are affected by the war have decent incomes.
