Ukraine, Moldova set sight on next milestones in EU accession process

After Ukraine and Moldova formally opened their accession talks on Tuesday (25 June), they are expected to kick off a process of further aligning their own legislation to the bloc, Euractiv spoke to both countries chief negotiators about their expectations for the next stages of the process.

Two years after their application, both countries formally started their accession talks, marked by two separate ‘Intergovernmental Conferences’ (IGCs) in Luxembourg.

The negotiating frameworks, drawn up to guide the accession talks and approved by EU member states last week, have now been presented to both countries.

What are the next steps?

In parallel, both countries will undergo a thorough bilateral screening process to determine how far their respective legislation already complies with EU standards and how much reform work is required.

Once the screening—which normally takes one to two years but, according to EU diplomats, could be concluded much faster in this case —is finalised, the EU has to start laying out negotiation conditions.

The EU’s body of legislation, the acquis communautaire, is divided into 35 negotiating chapters, grouped into six clusters, while negotiations start and finish with the ‘fundamentals’ related to the judiciary and fundamental rights.

All EU27 member states must reach a unanimous agreement to open or close those chapters, which allows EU countries to demand more work or potentially delay proceedings.

While the process will likely take years, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi said on Tuesday that he hopes the “next Commission should be an enlargement Commission.”

New member states should be ready to join by the end of the next term, by 31 October 2029, Várhelyi said.

Ukraine’s ‘morale boost’

Asked about what expectations Ukraine would have from the next steps, Stefanishyna said Kyiv would “put the fundamental cluster and everything related to the rule of law as a priority”.

“We also already have good progress in several sectoral areas, for example, public procurement or economic criteria,” she said.

While the upcoming Hungarian EU presidency has limited policy influence, Ukrainian and EU officials have worries about potential hurdles in the following stages of the process by Budapest over concerns about national minorities.

Asked about those concerns, Stefanishyna said, “Nothing in the accession process could be a bigger obstacle than the war.”

“We understand this is a bilateral issue, so we should resolve it bilaterally, so we plan to invest in our dialog on the national minorities, on trade, on border crossings, on development and many other related issues,” Stefanishyna said.

“The main actor who made Europe great again was Ukraine,” Stefanishyna said about the official slogan of the presidency.

“We made the EU rediscover itself as a geopolitical union, we revived the enlargement process, boosted the discussion on EU reform and woke up the EU to think about security and defence policy,” she added.

Hopes for more access

At the same time, both countries hope for significant benefits for citizens before the actual accession to the bloc, which could take years.

“Our economy has been very much affected by Russia’s ruthless war against Ukraine and the more we can benefit in terms of access on the European market would be very beneficial for our citizens, for our producers, and for our economy,” Moldova’s Deputy Prime Minister Cristina Gherasimov told Euractiv.

While Ukraine already participates on a political level in EU foreign ministers’ meetings, Gherasimov stressed this would also be Chișinău’s ambition.

“Participation in platforms like the FAC or GAC would be very useful because we have the possibility to already interact with the EU member states on priorities, on the European agenda, and we can prepare better for what to expect once we become a full member state,” Gherasimov said.

“It would be a socialisation process for our institutions, for our public servants who see how processes work and they see a different working culture,” she added.

Asked about Moldova’s civil service’s capacity to cope with the workload of the accession talks, Gherasimov said her government would investigate how to build up the expertise that is currently missing.

“We are identifying several chapters where we need more expertise that our own public administration does not have,” Gherasimov said, adding this would include policy fields like agriculture and the environment.

“For that, we work with member states, but also with the European Commission to help design instruments to provide us the missing expertise,” she added.

Chișinău eyes October vote

Moldova, however, faces a range of threats as the government seeks to secure European membership.

Accession prospects largely depend on the outcome of the 20 October EU referendum, which is expected to shape the country’s future direction by asking whether to anchor its European aspiration in its constitution.

Current polls indicate that around 56% of the population supports the referendum, suggesting a strong mandate for the government’s pro-EU agenda. However, concerns exist over pro-Russian interference in the electoral process.

Gherasimov said she hoped Tuesday’s formal opening of accession talks would boost the referendum vote.

“However, it is true that our informational space is very much polluted by disinformation and propaganda targeting the EU, targeting the EU values, targeting the EU institutions and the our future in the EU as such,” Gherasimov said.

“We are putting all efforts at the level of the government, but also civil society organisations, who work very hard to convey to the ordinary citizens and the various stakeholders in our society, who might have certain concerns about the EU how [accession] would affect them directly,” she said.

Gherasimov said the Moldovan government would aim to include stakeholders in the 35 working groups on each accession chapter.

“We’re trying to be as inclusive and as transparent as possible, having a very proactive approach as we move closer to the EU referendum,” she said.

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