Dacian Ciolos: Moldova and Ukraine should start EU accession negotiations together
The Republic of Moldova and Ukraine should start EU accession negotiations together, as once they have been granted candidate country status, MEP Dacian Ciolos told Radio Moldova.
According to the official, from a technical point of view, the two countries could also be decoupled, but it would not be desirable. The statement was made in the context of yesterday's visit to Kiev of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The European Commission will present a first verbal assessment of the current reform efforts in Ukraine to the Council of Member States in June and a written report in October, on the basis of which a decision on the start of accession negotiations will be taken, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after yesterday's visit to Kiev.
According to the official, Ukrainians must be supported in the context of EU accession.
MEP Dacian Ciolos told Radio Moldova that although the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine at certain stages had different levels of implementation of reforms, both countries should start accession negotiations at the same time, hopefully after the European Commission's assessment in October.
"Technically things will be separate, but when there was talk of granting candidate status to Ukraine and neither Moldova nor Georgia, we were among those who asked for the Republic of Moldova to be included. A few months ago, Ukraine said it was more advanced than Moldova in terms of preparations, now I hope we can see that Moldova has caught up and we can go together with both, we want to start accession negotiations with both countries," said Dacian Ciolos.
At the end of April, the Republic of Moldova presented its contributions to the European Union's Enlargement Report for 2023. It will be updated at the end of June. The final assessment of the implementation of the nine conditionalities set by the European Commission on 23 June last year, when it granted the country the status of candidate country, will take place in October.
