President on Moldova possibly surpassing Ukraine in EU accession process

Although Ukraine has met the same commitments as the Republic of Moldova for initiating negotiations on the first cluster, a member state (Hungary) does not agree to support the opening of negotiations for Cluster I for Ukraine. This is a political issue that the European Union needs to resolve. President of Moldova Maia Sandu made the statements at the Diaspora Congress.


“The accession process is a merit-based process. There is no provision and no one says that two or three countries must proceed at exactly the same pace. (...) So, we are not in a situation where Moldova has advanced more and cannot move to the next stage because Ukraine has not yet advanced. It is a political issue that the European Commission and the European Union need to resolve, and we hope that a political solution will be found,” said Maia Sandu.


The head of state mentioned that, in the meantime, the Republic of Moldova is not standing by and waiting but is working on the next steps.


“We know what the next steps are that we need to take, so we are already working on the next steps, and when this procedure is formally concluded, we will be able to conclude it sooner. Everything depends on our technical capacity and everything depends on the political support for this process,” Maia Sandu also said.


The fact that the Republic of Moldova could advance in the negotiation process for EU accession was written by Politico publication, which noted that by surpassing Ukraine in this process, Chișinău could irritate Kyiv. However, the publication mentions that things might change after a forthcoming meeting between the US and Russian presidents, scheduled for Friday in Alaska. 


“If the two leaders reach an agreement and establish that Ukraine's EU accession is a crucial part of it, Trump might convince Orbán to withdraw his opposition to Kyiv's accession,” Politico notes.