Sandu: Russia cannot block the EU accession process
Russia cannot block Moldova’s accession process to the European Union, President Maia Sandu stated on Friday in Chișinău after the first EU-Moldova summit. She emphasized that Moldova must be prepared to join the EU even without the pro-Russian, separatist region of Transnistria.
At a press conference in Chișinău, Sandu noted that there are two scenarios for Moldova’s accession to the Union — with Transnistria and without it.
She considered the “best scenario” to be a situation in which Transnistria is reintegrated with the mother state, and Moldova fully joins the EU. “We are working on this,” she emphasized.
At the same time, she did not rule out a second scenario in which the right bank of the Dniester, controlled by the Moldovan government, could integrate with the EU earlier than the Transnistria on the left bank.
As she explained, the presence of Russian troops in this separatist region poses a “serious obstacle” to its reintegration, and in her opinion, this should not block the European integration process of the rest of the country.
“We do not want Russia to be able to veto our integration process with the EU. (…) Russia does not want Moldova to become part of the European family, to strengthen its democracy and sovereignty,” Sandu said.
Representing the EU side at the summit in Chișinău, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa emphasized that the so-called first cluster of Moldova’s accession negotiations should be opened as soon as possible.
The European Commission had previously recognized that Moldova and Ukraine met the conditions for this by carrying out necessary reforms. However, the opening of each cluster requires unanimous agreement from member states, and Hungary does not agree on progress in negotiations with Ukraine. This effectively blocks Moldova as the accession processes of these two countries have been grouped together.
In addition to the issue of accession negotiations, a significant topic of the summit was EU financial support for Moldova. Von der Leyen announced the disbursement of the first tranche of 270 million euros from the 1.9 billion euro “growth plan,” the largest in the history of the EU support program for Moldova. The first released funds will be allocated, among other things, to the construction of a hospital and the improvement of the heating system in a country that still largely depends on Russian gas. (07.05.2025)
