On Tuesday 27 June after lunch in Luxembourg with the ministers of European Affairs, Moldova’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicu Popescu, stressed that the opening of accession negotiations for Moldova at the end of the year was a “crucial, important objective” for his country and its people.
“European integration, EU membership, is the best way to keep Moldova peaceful, stable and on track to development”, he added.
The working lunch provided an opportunity to review Chisinau’s progress on the nine recommendations put forward by the European Commission with regard to opening accession negotiations.
Moldova has already fulfilled three of them: judicial reform and reforms to the electoral code, improving the involvement of civil society in the decision-making process and strengthening the protection of human rights.
According to the European Commission, the country has made good progress in three other areas: judicial reform, de-oligarchisation and reforms relating to public finance management.
Finally, it must make greater efforts in the fight against corruption, the fight against organised crime, including asset recovery, the fight against financial crime and money laundering, and reforms relating to public administration (see EUROPE 13207/10).
The Swedish minister, Jessika Roswall, whose country holds the Presidency of the Council of the EU, said that Chisinau had done “ambitious and impressive” work on the process of European integration and reform. “Moldova has made considerable and very impressive progress, despite being the victim of an attempt by Russia to destabilise the country and spread disinformation”, she stressed.
“All (the ministers, editor’s note) noted the very important progress achieved by Moldova”, added the Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)