Kristina Gerasimov
“Our colleagues from Ukraine, just like us, completed the bilateral screening phase just this week and are also ready to take the next step. Indeed, they do not yet have the support of all 27 member states. Hungary has repeatedly said that Ukraine is not ready. Here it is already the duty of the member states, of the European Union, to break this deadlock and find a solution on how to move forward, given that both we and Ukraine have successfully passed this stage. Now we are waiting to see how the discussions within the Council will end,” Gerasimov told Public Radio.
As Logos Press previously reported, the bilateral screening process of the RM-EU ended on September 22, during which more than 100 thousand pages of normative and legislative acts of Moldova were analyzed for compliance with the European legislation during 15 months.
“I want to congratulate all my colleagues – both those who work in public institutions and representatives of civil society, the private sector and the diaspora, who made efforts so that Moldova could present itself at the highest level,” Gerasimov said.
According to her, Moldova managed to conduct the bilateral screening in record time, much faster than many other candidate states.
“This happened not only because we are working literally day and night here in Moldova, but also because the experts of the European Commission are ready to make additional efforts to speed up this process. Today, the European Commission – the so-called executive body of the EU – has more than 1,000 experts working for Moldova alone,” Cristina Gerasimov said.
Cristina Gerasimov said that, on the Commission’s side, everything necessary has been done, they have done their part. Now, it is the turn of the 27 member states to decide when the first set of negotiating chapters will be opened.
At the same time, she said, the topic of the Transnistrian problem was not raised: “The EU is waiting for us to present our plan to unite the country”.
Referring to the past parliamentary elections, Cristina Gerasimov said that “the whole Europe was waiting with bated breath for the results of these elections”:
“Because everyone realized what unprecedented challenges we faced in preparing this electoral process. And the congratulations received from all European capitals and not only, are messages of support and confirmation of the willingness to jointly continue building a European Moldova here at home. This is a very strong signal,” the deputy prime minister said.
