The EU/Moldova summit in Chișinău on Friday 4 July will be symbolic in the main. The aim is for the EU to send Moldova positive signals on its road to membership. However, there are no plans to take concrete steps in this direction. The opening of the first ‘cluster’ of accession negotiation chapters will not be announced at the summit, unless agreement is reached by the Council.
The Moldovans “have met the conditions for opening the first clusters”, a senior European official confirmed on Wednesday 2 July. It is now up to the EU member states in the Council to unanimously approve the opening.
While the substance of this decision is not so much a matter of debate, it is the progress of Moldova’s accession process in parallel with that of Ukraine that is the issue. And this is being blocked by Hungary, which is refusing to approve the opening of the first ‘cluster’ for Kyiv.
Several European sources suggest that Moldova could now continue the process independently of Ukraine. “Each country is judged on its own merits”, say the European institutions. However, the aim of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU seems to be not to decouple the processes of the two countries, which have so far made parallel progress towards the EU (see EUROPE 13673/2).
Growth plan. In more concrete terms, however, on Thursday the EU is expected to announce the payment of pre-financing under the growth plan for Moldova (see EUROPE 13594/24). The financial pillar of the plan, the ‘Reform and Growth Facility’, has been allocated €1.9 billion (€1.5 billion in loans and €385 million in grants) over the period 2025-2027, a huge amount for a country whose GDP was around €16.6 billion in 2024.
Tackling hybrid threats. At the summit, the EU also intends to support Moldova in its fight against Russian disinformation campaigns.
“The summit itself will be subject to foreign manipulation. We are already seeing efforts to diminish the importance of this summit and dilute the positive message”, explained a senior European official.
After heavy interference and vote-buying during the EU referendum and the presidential election (see EUROPE 13517/9), concerns are now turning to the parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of September.
The leaders will therefore discuss this issue and ways of strengthening Moldova’s resilience in the face of threats. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal and Camille-Cerise Gessant)