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Could Moldova join the EU without resolving its Transnistria question? [1]
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Date: 2023-10
But just as Moldova’s EU integration could spur the process of reintegration, the Transnistrian problem could put a brake on Moldova’s movement towards the EU.
The head of the EU delegation to Ukraine recently cast doubt on the prospect of Moldova joining the EU without Transnistria, saying that “the experience of some previous enlargements shows that the European Union does not currently want to be drawn into other people’s territorial conflicts”.
Moreover, one of the most important tasks to be resolved in the process of reintegration is the issue of the withdrawal of the Russian military from Transnistria. This means that settling the Transnistria conflict depends on the will of Moscow.
For Moldova, the prospect of European integration is a powerful political factor. President Maia Sandu is planning to use interim success on EU accession as her political force’s main trump card ahead of next year’s presidential elections.
The European Commission (EC) is expected to present its new EU enlargement policy in the near future, claiming that Moldova and Western Balkans states could join by 2030. Before the end of October, the EC will present its annual reports on the progress of countries involved in the EU accession process – including Moldova – and make concrete proposals for the EU’s ongoing enlargement.
Hostage to Moscow
Before July this year, no European officials had ever allowed themselves, in public, to support Moldova’s accession to the EU without the Transnistria conflict resolved.
“Moldova will have to decide on its own what to do with the Transnistrian region. Cyprus became a member of the EU, despite territorial problems. And Moldova can do the same,” said Josep Borrell, vice president of the EC, in Chișinău in July.
The head of Moldova’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MFAEI) went even further.
“The territory controlled by the government in Chișinău can join the EU, regardless of what happens to the east of us, including the situation around Transnistria,” Nicu Popescu said on 19 September.
The next day, MFAEI confirmed that “one of the options” could be for Moldova to join the European Union without Transnistria, but that it would “continue to look for ways to resolve the Transnistrian conflict even after joining the EU”.
The MFAEI’s position has probably pleased the unrecognised authorities in Tiraspol, who have long insisted that Moldova and Transnistria are two equal and different states with different geopolitical aspirations.
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[1] Url:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/transnistria-moldova-european-union-russia-breakaway-reintegration/
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