On October 3, the European Parliament will examine the country report on the progress made by the Republic of Moldova in implementing the nine recommendations put forward by the European Commission, said Romanian MEP Corina Crețu. The official voiced hope that the Republic of Moldova will have the accession negotiations with the EU opened by the end of this year. According to the MEP, together with the opening of the accession negotiations, Moldova will be able to obtain pre-accession funds, but should be ready with concrete projects, IPN reports.
The Romanian official said the war in Ukraine offered the Republic of Moldova the chance to become an accession candidate in only three months of the submission of the application for EU membership. The Moldovan authorities should make effort to fulfill the conditions formulated by the European Commission so that the European Council in December agrees to open the accession negotiations.
“The accession of a country to the European Union lasted for a decade on average. In the case of Romania, the process lasted for 12 years. We submitted the accession application in 1995 and received the candidate status in 1997. In the case of the Republic of Moldova, this period contracted to three months. A lot is yet to be done. However, three points of the nine were fulfilled. Work must be done primarily to fight corruption and to transform the legislation. The Parliament of the Republic of Moldova needs to adjust the legislation to the European one. Nonetheless, intense work starts only now as the negotiations will be opened,” Corina Crețu stated in the program “Emphasis on Today” on TVR Moldova channel.
According to the MEP, the Republic of Moldova should prepare concrete projects to modernize and develop the country, which will be financed with pre-accession funds, immediately after the accession negotiations are opened.
“On October 3, we will have a debate on the country report in the European Parliament and the reforms, progress will be analyzed there. I will give a speech and will say that the Republic of Moldova is ready. When the negotiations start, more work will have to be done, but the Republic of Moldova will be entitled to pre-accession funds. That’s why it must prepare projects to absorb each euro. President Charles Michel even made a call to the member states to get ready to welcome new members until 2030. This gives us hope. A special €50 billion fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine is being discussed now. I invite the Republic of Moldova to also submit projects,” said the Romanian MEP.
The nine recommendations formulated by the European Commission when the Republic of Moldova was granted the EU candidate status refer to the justice sectors reform, improvement of the electoral legislation, anticorruption, deoligarchization, strengthening of the fight against organized crime and asset recovery, improvement of public services, the public administration reform, involvement of civil society in decision making, strengthening of the public administration’s capacity, protection of human rights, and combating of gender-based violence.
