The Republic of Moldova has now the deepest and closest relationship with the European Union in the modern history of the country. On February 7, Moldova entered the first stage of technical work on accession to the EU, Cristina Gerasimov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, said upon her return from a working visit to Brussels. “On February 21 and 22, we will be back in Brussels for a first analysis of the EU legislation on justice and fundamental rights. Justice is the first chapter with which we begin the evaluation. The accession negotiations begin and end with it,” Cristina Gerasimov said at a press conference held to sum up the results of her visit to the Belgian capital, IPN reports.
Cristina Gerasimov noted that the first stage of technical work represents the first practical step to transpose the European Council’s historic decision of last December and represents the evaluation of national legislation in relation to the Community acquis – a long process that requires huge efforts and specialized expertise on very clear areas, divided into 33 chapters. At this stage, the legislation of the Republic of Moldova will be compared with that of the EU so as to identify the differences and determine the necessary adjustments to the national legislation.
The Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration said that the speed at which Moldova will get closer to the European Union depends on the cleaning of justice, on the existence of the rule of law as a European state means a state where justice works, no one is above the law and the rules are the same for everyone. “This is exactly what we want for the European Moldova,” stated the official.
Cristina Gerasimov voiced hope that the presentation of Moldova’s legislation per chapter to the European Commission will begin the coming months. This is the second phase of the evaluation stage. “In parallel, we continue to implement the last three recommendations of the Commission. We will see the European Commission’s March report, which will be an assessment of how we implement the three recommendations,” said the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, referring to the justice sector reform, anticorruption and deoligarchization. “Depending on the made progress, we will have news about the next stage, namely the fixing of the first intergovernmental meeting that will set the negotiating framework with a clear calendar, procedures, principles and substance of negotiations.”
Last November, the Government of the Republic of Moldova started an exercise to self-assess the compliance of the Moldovan legislation with the Community acquis. The Government’s efforts to implement the agenda to integrate Moldova into the European Union will be amplified by creating a Bureau for European Integration within the State Chancellery. For now, the Bureau is still in the process of formation. It will ensure organizational and informational support for the work of the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for coordinating the activities of public administration authorities and other institutions in order to achieve the priority strategic objective – the European integration of the country.
The Republic of Moldova applied to join the European Union on March 3, 2022 and was granted the EU candidate status in June 2022. In December 2023, the EU leaders decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova.
