Speeding up Moldova’s EU accession is a “realistic project,” President Maia Sandu told AFP in a recent interview, hoping to further the cause during the upcoming European Political Community (EPC) summit, hosted by Moldova on June 1st.
According to Sandu, only EU membership can guarantee that Moldova will not end up becoming Russia’s next target. “Of course, nothing compares to what is happening in Ukraine,” the president said, “but we see the risks and we do believe that we can save our democracy only as part of the EU.”
Moldova has been experiencing especially high tensions since the war broke out, not only because the country is wedged between the EU and Ukraine, but also because of the situation with Transnistria, a breakaway region within its borders that’s actively aided by Moscow to keep up the frozen conflict with Moldova that’s been ongoing for three decades.
More recently, several leaked intelligence reports also suggested that the Kremlin is actively trying to undermine Moldova’s political stability in order to bring pro-Russia political elites to the front and alienate the county from the West. To that goal, even training and deploying professional insurgents is included in Moscow’s toolbox.
That’s why Sandu and the pro-EU Moldovan establishment believe there is no time to waste on the accession front, even if the country became an EU candidate only last year. “The Ukraine war made things black and white. [It’s] very clear what the free world means, and what the authoritarian world means, for all of us,” Sandu said in the interview.
But although EU membership usually takes years, if not decades, to attain—and experts believe Moldova still has a long way to go until it can fulfill the political and economic requirements, primarily in combating systemic corruption—the president sustains the hope that, given the circumstances, an ‘ASAP’ accession is still within reach.
“We do believe that this is a realistic project for us and we are looking forward to see this happening as soon as possible,” Sandu said.
On the other hand, NATO membership is still off the table, as—much like Finland—Moldova would have to give up its constitutional neutrality for joining the Atlantic Organization.
“But there are discussions in our society about whether neutrality protects us and if at some point people will change their view, of course, we will reconsider this decision,” Sandu said. “In the meantime, we are trying to consolidate the defense sector of Moldova and we are counting on our friends.”
By “friends,” the president primarily means the EU and other prospective allies, set to meet under the banner of the European Political Community (EPC), a forum created last year for the 27 member states and 20 neighboring countries.
Sandu hopes the EPC’s upcoming summit will also help her case for an accelerated EU accession process gain more solid supporters. The Chișinău summit “is important because we see that we are not alone, that we have many friends,” she underlined.
