The EU countries publicly support the expansion, but in reality they oppose it. This was announced today, August 6, by the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Peter Szijjártó, at a press conference in Chisinau.
The diplomat then raised the question of how Hungary intends to use its EU Council presidency to support Moldova’s European integration.
“I don’t want to spoil the mood, but our main task is to put an end to the hypocrisy that has appeared in Brussels on the issue of EU enlargement. Most countries talk about how strongly they support expansion. I am there, and when there is no press and only us, the 27 members, are present, ministers are more likely to speak out against expansion than in favour.” – Szijjarto stressed.
He noted that European leaders do not directly say that they do not support Moldova or any other candidate country, but they say that they still need to do something, make some improvements.
“Some people say that we should focus more on quality than speed, and this is a good bureaucratic method of doing nothing under the pretext of expecting quality.” – concluded Peter Szijjártó.
Recently, the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of Moldova Kristina Gerasimova The EU confirmed that the first real negotiations on EU accession might not begin until next year. So far, representatives of EU member states have only discussed the framework that will form the basis for consultations. A bilateral review to determine the conformity of national legislation with European law is currently underway, which will take at least six months.
Chisinau hopes that in order to speed up European integration, the European Commission will approve transition periods for Moldova in a number of key areas. The authorities of the Republic of Moldova are optimistic about completing the accession process by 2030.
