Moldovan President Maja Sandu welcomed today's start of official negotiations for Moldova's accession to The EU, emphasizing that the future of its country is in the European family, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA
Moldova is applying for membership of the European Union along with neighboring Ukraine in 2022, days after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, strongly condemned by Sandu. Negotiations on the accession of Moldova and Ukraine to the EU begin today.
A referendum on joining the EU is scheduled in Moldova for October 20 this year. The citizens of the country will answer the question "Do you support the accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union?".
"We are stronger together", Sandu wrote on the social network "X". Pro-Western and pro-Russian parties have traded power since the collapse of the Soviet Union in Moldova, where the majority of citizens speak Romanian, but there is also a significant Russian-speaking minority, according to Reuters. Moscow has deployed troops to the separatist region of Transnistria, which broke away from Chisinau's rule after a war at the beginning of the last decade of the last century.
Sandu was elected president in 2020 with an election program for European integration of the country. She accused Moscow of interfering in Moldova's internal affairs and plotting a coup.
Moldova's Vice Prime Minister for European Integration Cristina Gerasimov said in her turn that today is a historic day. "We are more committed than ever to the mission of realizing the aspiration of our citizens to become part of the European family," she wrote in "Ex".