VIDEO // Cristina Gherasimov: All 27 EU member states support opening accession negotiations with Moldova

Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Cristina Gherasimov stated today after the cabinet meeting that all 27 member states of the European Union support the opening of accession negotiations with the Republic of Moldova. She emphasized that, in the subsequent stages of the process, decoupling from Ukraine would be natural, as each candidate state has its own set of reform priorities.


"For the Republic of Moldova, there is consensus from all 27 member states. Hungary also supports the opening of negotiations with the Republic of Moldova," said Cristina Gherasimov.


According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the fact that the Republic of Moldova is currently in the same political stage of the negotiation process as Ukraine explains why the political decision has not yet been taken at the European Union level.


"Given that the Republic of Moldova is, for the moment, in the same negotiation stage as Ukraine and there is no political decision for our colleagues in Ukraine, the process for the Republic of Moldova, at the political level, is where it is today," explained Gherasimov.


She specified that once negotiations start on a technical level, each candidate state will be treated individually, and this will determine a separate evolution of the negotiation processes.


"When technical level negotiations begin, each candidate state receives a set of priorities for each chapter, following the evaluation of European and national legislation, the so-called bilateral screening, which the Republic of Moldova has recently completed. The set of priorities for each candidate state is different. Therefore, in the next negotiation stages, this decoupling is expected to be natural, as each candidate country follows its own set of priority reforms," the official stated.


The Republic of Moldova has started technical discussions on the first negotiation chapters for EU accession - Fundamental Values, Internal Market and External Relations.