The leader of Moldova’s ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PSD), Speaker of the Parliament Igor Grosu, said on TVR Moldova that negotiations on the country’s accession to the European Union could take years.
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Earlier, the Moldovan authorities expressed their desire to start negotiations on the republic’s accession to the European Union by the end of this year.
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“It is important to start negotiations in 2023, … negotiations are a long process that can take years, each country sets the speed with which it moves from one chapter to another. It is important for us to have this start,” Grosu said.
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He expressed confidence that the authorities have all the arguments to start the negotiation process.
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Moldovan President Maia Sandu signed an application for the republic’s accession to the European Union in March last year, noting that the process of European integration must be accelerated. The heads of state and government of the European Union at the summit in Brussels on June 23 approved granting Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidates for joining the union. The European Commission put forward nine conditions for Moldova to fulfill in order to join the EU.
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Obtaining candidate status is only the beginning of a fairly long journey to join the EU. Turkey has been a candidate since 1999, North Macedonia since 2005, Montenegro since 2010 and Serbia since 2012. Croatia was the last country to join the EU in 2013, a ten-year process.
