The first European Union - Moldova Intergovernmental Conference – a meeting at which decisions are taken in the negotiation process between the EU member states and the candidate country - will take place in Luxembourg today, June 25. At the first conference, the candidate state accepts the negotiating framework proposed by mutual consent by the member states, while the following conferences will center on the opening or closing of the negotiating chapters. In other words, the first Intergovernmental Conference is the solemn start of the accession negotiations, IPN reports.
Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Cristina Gerasimov said that all the 27 EU member states will be represented at today’s meeting by ministers for foreign affairs or European affairs and the Republic of Moldova as a candidate country. The delegation of the Republic of Moldova will be led by Prime Minister Dorin Recean and the meeting will be chaired by the minister of foreign affairs of Belgium, the country that holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of June.
Genady Marian, head of the Office for European Integration, said that the negotiating framework is adopted at the first conference. It establishes the guidelines and principles for the accession negotiations with the candidate country, the decision-making procedures in the Council of the EU, the ways of assessing the implementation of reforms, but also what happens when the country does not make progress or even regresses. The General Negotiating Position is a document in which the Republic of Moldova accepts the negotiating framework proposed by the EU and which reflects the principles and guidelines set out in the negotiating framework.
Rodica Crudu, the Government’s state secretary for European Integration, said that immediately after the conference, the Republic of Moldova will be presented with a calendar for the next stage of screening, namely the bilateral screening – the cornerstone of the negotiations themselves.
“Thus, at the end of this exercise, we will have a clear picture of how ready we are to implement the European legislation at home. We are now working hard to prepare the country presentations to discuss with our European partners the extent to which we have already managed to transpose the EU legislation and the further plans in the accession process. The purpose of the negotiations is to make sure that, at the end of this road, the Republic of Moldova is ready to assume all the responsibilities, but also to benefit from all the rights of a member state of the European Union,” stated Rodica Crudu.
The Republic of Moldova applied for EU membership in March 2022 and was granted candidate status in June 2022. In April 2023, the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the European Commission and the European Council to open negotiations with the Republic of Moldova on accession to the European Union, following the fulfilment of the nine stages identified by the European Commission. Recently, the ambassadors of the EU member states agreed, in principle, on the negotiating frameworks for the official opening of accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. On June 25, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union convenes the first intergovernmental conferences with the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
