Moldova wants to join the European Union “as soon as possible” to protect itself from the Russian threat and hopes for an answer “in the coming months” to start negotiations, the country’s president, Maya Sandu, said in an interview with AFP.
“We believe that we cannot save our democracy if we are not a member of the EU“, Sandou said a few days before a European summit was held in Chisinau.
«Russia will continue to be a major source of instability in the coming years and we must protect ourselves“, added the 50-year-old Moldovan president on the sidelines of the Council of Europe summit that ended on Tuesday in Iceland.
The former Soviet republic of 2.6 million inhabitants hosts its first major meeting on June 1stin which the countries of the European Political Community (EPC) and the strongest countries of the continent will participate.
The Moldovan president, who has been in power since 2020also called for a large pro-EU demonstration to be held on Sunday for the country’s residents to show their support for Moldova joining the bloc.
«The war in Ukraine made us see things in black and white: we see very clearly now what a free world means and what an authoritarian world means,” Sandou emphasized.
Moreover, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine made the medium-term accession of Moldova and Ukraine to the EU more likely.
“We believe that inclusion is one realistic design and we want it to be implemented as soon as possible”, she underlined, while expressing the hope that “there will be a decision on the start of accession negotiations in the coming months”.
The EU gave the Ukraine official status of a country to join in June 2022, but has asked Kyiv to continue reforms and, above all, to crack down on corruption.
The accession of Moldova, which borders Romania, would be easier due to its size, although many obstacles remainwhich means the process may last at least until the 2030s.
In addition to its fragile economic situation and chronic corruption problems, Moldova must find a solution for the breakaway province of Transnistria, a pro-Russian region with 300,000 inhabitants in the eastern part of the country.
«We still have things to dobut we are working very hard and this is now our main goal,” Sandu insisted.
Source: CNN Greece
