Moldovan deputy premier on visit to Brussels

Chisinau, Dec. 12 /MOLDPRES/- The head of Moldovan diplomacy, Nicu Popescu, paid an important working visit to Brussels, on the eve of the European Council on December 14-15.

According to the MAEIE press service, the Moldovan official had meetings both with European officials and his colleagues from the EU member states, among them Luminița Odobescu (Romania), Xavier Bettel (Luxembourg), Gabrielius Landsbergis (Lithuania), Margus Tsahkna (Estonia), Krišjānis Kariņš (Latvia), Juraj Blanár (Slovakia) and Anna Lührmann (Germany).

"As every time I'm in Brussels, I also had a meeting with Gert-Jan Koopman, Director-General of the Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations, and his team. We discussed the European Commission's recommendation on the opening of accession negotiations with Moldova and the next necessary steps in the accession process, focusing on the continuous reform of the judicial system and the de-oligarchization process. I also had meetings with Simon Mordue and Magdalena Grono, foreign policy advisers to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

I also had the opportunity to see my colleagues from the GUAM regional initiative - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. I spoke with Ilia Darchiashvili, Dmytro Kuleba and Jeyhun Bayramov about regional security, trade-economic cooperation and accession process of candidate countries to the European Union.

This visit was carried out in the context in which the European Commission recommended the beginning of accession negotiations to the European Union for the Republic of Moldova. The final decision in this regard is to be taken at the level of the heads of state and government of the European Union at the European Council", Popescu said.