Nicu Popescu on EU accession negotiations: "Our objective is to have all our homework done by the end of this year"
Moldova's next steps in its relations with the European Union will be determined by two things - our capacity for reform and the political will, discussions and dynamics within the EU. This was said this evening by Nicu Popescu, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, during the show "In Context" on public television. He reiterated that the authorities want to fulfil the nine recommendations of the European Commission by the end of this year.
"We obviously have to do our homework, but the opening of accession negotiations, the signing of the accession treaty, then the accession to the Schengen area or the accession to the Eurozone, each time we will go through these stages through which we do our homework, and then the Member States adopt the next stage in their relationship with the EU. What the situation will be within the EU, what the decisions taken by the EU will be, I cannot tell you exactly, but our objective is absolutely clear, to do absolutely all our homework by the end of this year".
The Head of Foreign Affairs also stressed that 20 new employees will soon start working at the Ministry, and most of them will work on EU accession files.
"We have a big shortage of specialists. All institutions are in this effort to identify, hire, motivate those people who will bring us to the EU in the coming years through the reforms they will implement. The first team of newly recruited diplomats will arrive at the Foreign Ministry these very days".
Despite the difficulties of this year, and the dramatic impact of the war on our country, Nicu Popescu also said that progress had been made on "crucial" dossiers for our country. In this respect, the minister mentioned the importance of international partnerships. Because of these "friends" the Republic of Moldova was able to provide its citizens with electricity and heat.
"They help us to open markets, more accessible to producers, so that we can continue to provide jobs, income to citizens (...). We have managed to store natural gas in Romania and Ukraine, we have managed to purchase this natural gas to get through this winter without any problems, also thanks to the financial support of our partners. We had a credit line from the EBRD. Thanks to our European partners, we managed to reduce the cost for our citizens through these subsidies from the European Commission that have been announced several times."
On 3 March it will be one year since the Republic of Moldova submitted its application to join the European Union. To open accession negotiations, our country must meet nine conditions put forward by the European Commission. Among the most important are justice reform and deoligarchisation. In autumn 2023, the Commission will also publish the "enlargement package", which will include the progress report on Moldova.
