Deputy Prime Minister Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, said that the process of planning and structuring the Moldova – EU accession negotiations following the green light given by the European Council begins on December 15. In a news conference, the official noted that more details about the process will be given over the next few days, IPN reports.

“We already discuss, together with the European Commission, a very and very ambitious chapter progress calendar that will take the Republic of Moldova to the European Union. This won’t be easy and won’t be fast. We have a lot of work to do and know very well that our country must do a lot for our standards to meet the European standards,” stated Nicu Popescu.

According to him, the first chapter on which they will work is the justice sector reform and anticorruption – the major objective for Moldovan society. “In our discussions with the European Commission as well, the justice sector reform and the fight against corruption have been treated as the main objective and will be the top chapter on which we will focus during the next weeks and months. There will also be several more chapters at this first stage, but we will yet decide which these will be,” said the official.

Nicu Popescu reiterated that the European Council’s decision is a historic event for the Republic of Moldova, but assiduous work starts. “Assiduous work to transform our country into a state that will stay proudly alongside the other member states of the European Union,” he stated.

The Deputy Premier underlined that the objective set by President Maia Sandu is to prepare the Republic of Moldova for accession to the EU by 2030.  “The same horizon was repeatedly enunciated also by European officials, both heads of state or government of EU member states or representatives of the European Commission. This is our ambition, but it is again very important for our society to maintain this firm commitment as citizens of the Republic of Moldova for this reform process, democratization and integration of our country into the EU,” stated Minister Popescu.

On Thursday, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant the EU candidate status to Georgia. The EU will also open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached. The European Commission was invited to report on this by March so that a decision could be taken.