CHISINAU, Sep 1 The European Parliament plans to start negotiations Moldova's accession to the European Union by the end of this year was announced on Friday in Chisinau by the European deputy Siegfried Muresan, who represents Romania in the EU Legislative Assembly.
In March last year, Moldovan President Maia Sandu signed an application for the republic's accession to the European Union, noting that the process of European integration should be accelerated. The heads of state and government of the European Union at the summit in Brussels on June 23, 2022 approved the granting of the status of candidates to join the union to Ukraine and Moldova. The European Commission put forward nine conditions for Moldova to fulfill in order to join the EU.
“We, the European Parliament, are now working closely with other European institutions on the issue of rapprochement with Moldova. Thus, we will use the coming weeks to ensure that, if the nine reform recommendations sent by the European Commission last year are executed by the authorities in Chisinau, European institutions will approve the start of negotiations on Moldova's accession by the end of the year,» Muresan said during a meeting of the EU-Moldova Civil Society Platform.
The MEP expressed hope that the cooperation of the authorities of the republic with representatives of the non-governmental sector, in particular, with the leaders of public organizations in Moldova itself, as well as in other countries, including Romania, will play a special role «for the soonest approximation of the republic to EU standards.»
The majority of Moldovans are in favor of maintaining economic, political and cultural ties with the Russian Federation, according to a poll published in mid-March by the Republic's Institute of Marketing and Sociological Surveys (IMAS). The survey also showed that more than half of Moldovans oppose the country's exit from the CIS, and many citizens are dissatisfied with the standard of living and believe that the country's leadership is guilty of raising the price of gas and electricity.