Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, emphasizes that the EU should begin accession negotiations with both Ukraine and Moldova by the end of this year. Metsola spoke with journalists ahead of the European Political Community summit in Copenhagen.
She congratulated Moldova on the pro-European party’s victory in the recent elections, noting that Russian interference did not achieve results for the Kremlin.
“The people clearly chose the European path, and we saw that interference and intimidation did not work. We also need to recognize that we must be prepared to counter threats to the stability of democratic election outcomes,” said the European Parliament president.
Metsola reminded that Maia Sandu’s party focused its campaign on hope for EU membership, and therefore the European Parliament “will continue to clearly state that the time has finally come to start negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and we need to do this by the end of this year.”
She added that enlargement is beneficial both for the European Union and the candidate countries.
“This is not charity. It is something that works for all of us. It makes us more secure, gives us greater strategic control, and we can demonstrate that our people open the doors to new countries and their citizens when they want to join.”
