Moldova Gains the Opportunity to Move Faster
Until recently, Chisinau and Kyiv were viewed as a single political package in the EU enlargement process.
However, decisions adopted at the Intergovernmental Conferences on July 14 confirmed the shift toward an individual assessment of each country’s compliance with the criteria. Negotiations will open on the same thematic clusters, but their further progress will no longer be automatically linked to one another, according to a statement from the Council of the EU.
As noted by the Ukrainian publication “European Truth,” this approach reflects the basic principle of EU enlargement policy: each candidate country is responsible for fulfilling its own obligations independently of other candidates.
At the same time, the Ukrainian publication clarifies that some EU member states opposed this separation of Ukraine and Moldova in the accession negotiations and did not support this option. It also emphasizes that Hungary continues to play a key role in the effort to separate Moldova and Ukraine on their paths to the EU. Budapest gave the “green light” to begin negotiations on Clusters 2 and 3 for Chisinau but denied this right to Kyiv.
As a result, due to a lack of consensus, it was decided to revisit the issue of approving the screening results for Clusters 2 and 3 for Ukraine and Moldova at the next meeting of member states on July 22. This will be the last meeting before the summer recess for the EU Council’s Working Group on Enlargement.
Brussels views Chisinau’s progress positively
An additional “divisive” signal came from the assessment by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, who called Moldova one of the most successful candidates for EU membership. According to her, the republic is demonstrating a rapid pace of implementation of the necessary reforms, which gives reason to expect further progress in the negotiations. Meanwhile, many Europeans have recently been raising more and more questions about Ukraine and the quality of reforms in that country.
At the same time, officials in Brussels emphasize that this is not a matter of pitting Moldova against Ukraine. Both countries are continuing the negotiation process; however, the pace of their progress will now be determined by their own results, rather than by a political decision to consider their applications jointly, the Council of the EU notes.
For Chisinau, the new negotiation model reduces the risk of delays caused by circumstances beyond Moldova’s control, including the consequences of a full-scale war in Ukraine or political disagreements surrounding the Ukrainian issue.
But Moldova should not let its guard down either. Maintaining a rapid pace of European integration will require continuing judicial reform, fighting corruption, and fulfilling commitments across all negotiation chapters. It is precisely these indicators that will determine the country’s further progress toward EU membership, according to the EU Council’s statement.
