Moldova started on December 15 the process of preparing the EU accession talks, with the first chapter of the negotiations to be related to justice – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI).
This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and European Integration Minister Nicu Popescu after a meeting in Brussels with the Director-General of the EU Directorate General for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Geert-Jan Koopman. They formalized the decision to start negotiations. "Yesterday a fantastic decision was taken, which opens a whole new page in our joint book and is due to the fantastic work that has been done over the last year. This is a moment of great celebration," Nicu Popescu said during the joint press conference. "This is a great achievement, but it means that more work should now be done on the way to Moldova's de facto integration into the EU," Gert-Jan Koopman stressed. The Moldovan diplomat said that EU integration is a guarantee that Moldova remains free and peaceful. "We have just concluded our first working meeting with representatives of the Directorate General for Enlargement, with the team of Mr. Gert-Jan Koopman, with whom we will bring Moldova to the European Union in the coming years. After the yesterday historic decision of the European Council, which gave the green light to launch the negotiation process, we had a working meeting this morning, where we discussed what lies ahead," the MFAEI head said. According to him, the reform and strengthening of the justice system capable of fighting corruption is the first and most difficult chapter of the negotiations. "We will start by assessing the realities in Moldova in the justice sector and in what we call the fundamental elements of the functioning of democracy. These are among the first topics on which we will work jointly with the European Commission to speed up reforms in Moldova," Nicu Popescu said. According to him, the most difficult thing at this stage is the acceleration and finalization of the judicial reform. "We see that there is resistance in the justice sector, and I emphasize that it is fundamental for our society, as well as for EU accession, to have a working judicial system that fights corruption and puts thieves in jail," Nicu Popescu said. According to him, after the start of the talks, a series of explanatory meetings on the European legislation will be held, as well as a weekly exchange of information between the Moldovan ministries and institutions and the EU directorates. // 15.12.2023 - InfoMarket.
