Posted on 03/03/2022 10:39:39 PM PST by fluorescence
Moldova officially applied for fast-track EU membership on Thursday (3 March), joining Ukraine and Georgia, its partners from the so-called Associated Trio, a week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.
Prompted by war in neighbouring Ukraine, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, the prime minister and the parliamentary speaker signed a formal application for her country to join the EU on Thursday.
“It took 30 years for Moldova to reach maturity, but today the country is ready to take responsibility for its own future,” said Sandu, before holding up the signed document to the television cameras.
“We want to live in peace, prosperity, be part of the free world. While some decisions take time, others must be made quickly and decisively, and taking advantage of the opportunities that come with a changing world,” she said.
The application will be sent to Brussels in the coming days, she said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier this week charted the way as Kyiv submitted an official request to allow his country to gain ‘immediate’ membership under a special fast-track procedure as it defends itself from a Russian invasion.
Moldova’s move came also the same day that Eastern Partnership member Georgia formally applied for membership of the bloc.
In 2014, Moldova signed an Association Agreement with the EU aimed at aligning it with the bloc’s political and economic standards, but it came without a guarantee of membership.
The country of 2.6 million people, one of Europe’s poorest, played host to EU’s chief Josep Borrell on Wednesday and Thursday and this weekend will welcome US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Borrell, speaking alongside Sandu on Wednesday, said there is a concern about the “instability at the border” that the conflict could generate.
“The security risks for Moldova are serious,” she said, stressing that from the capital Chisinau “you can hear the noise of the bombs across the border” where Russian forces conduct military operations in Ukraine next to its borders.
Pro-Russian and pro-EU forces have vied for control in the country’s capital Chisinau since Moldova won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Not recognised by the international community, Moscow still has a military base as well as a stockpile of some 20,000 tonnes of munitions in the Russian-backed breakaway region of Transnistria, which seceded in 1990, as well as a stockpile of some 20,000 tonnes of munitions.
Chisinau’s long-standing demand for the troops to leave has been in vain.
According to some analysts, Russia’s strategy is to link the Moldovan territory of Transnistria which Moscow controls to the Ukrainian Black Sea territories it seeks to annex.
Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said Thursday was “a day future generations will proudly relate to, it is the moment our country has irreversibly anchored itself in the European space”.
However, aspirants wanting to join the EU typically face a long and complex process that often requires major reforms to reach the bloc’s standards.
This also includes implementing sweeping reforms and providing proof that their finances are heading in a direction that will allow them to adopt the euro.
A decision over the formal status of membership belongs to member states and needs to be unanimous.
A summit between Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova in the Georgian Black Sea city of Batumi in 2021 culminated with the signature of a declaration calling for the EU to acknowledge the perspective of these countries to become full EU members one day.
The self-declared ‘Associated Trio’ doesn’t want to be held back by the other three members of the EaP, which they perceive as having different agendas: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and currently suspended Belarus.
EU leaders may discuss the broader implications of the three requests when they meet for an informal summit in Paris next week, diplomats said.
Globalism marches Onward!
Moldova will just become another kelptocracy. Look at some of the youtube videos of their downtown areas, it still looks the USSR from the 1980s.
EU membership is probably its best chance for improvement.
Don’t be surprised if they ask Romania to annex it.
Something else to think about, there are parts of Ukraine that are still inhabited primarily with Hungarians, will Hungary move into those areas if the Russians threaten it?
When the Russians finish and install the new government, it’s gonna come with EU membership.
And Georgians and Ukes get EU wide passports with no visa needed...lol.
Was a time when “the EU was falling apart” but now we see countries can’t join fast enough.
That's exactly what they are trying to advance from. You may not like it, but,
1) Other former Eastern Bloc countries that entered the EU have substantially improved their economic lot.
2) In that region, it has now come down to 2 choices: Be a puppet state of Russia, or, join the EU. Not too surprisingly, those still with the choice choose the EU.
And Putin is all but forcing them to choose now.
I’d make a very quiet request through back back channels right now.
The Biden’s, Pelosis and Romneys (with Linda in tow) are already heading there to start new companies in whatever resource might be prevalent there. Oh, yeah, and to promise billions in foreign aid (wink, wink).
[Moldova will just become another kelptocracy. Look at some of the youtube videos of their downtown areas, it still looks the USSR from the 1980s.]
https://nypost.com/2015/02/16/investor-putin-could-be-worlds-richest-man-with-stolen-200b-fortune/
You know how they say the fish rots from the head down? After the end of the Cold War, Russians started being able to travel freely to the West and get a fairly good feel for attitudes in the West about war, land grabs and the way Western governments were constrained by those attitudes. I expect officers up and down the line understood that there was no possibility of a NATO invasion of Russia. So where’s the harm in putting that weapons procurement and maintenance budget towards more productive purposes, like luxury cars, expensive foreign vacations and Ivy League educations for their kids? To the extent Russian equipment is becoming an issue, it might be for the same reasons that Putin has $200b of personal savings - the budget for their acquisition and maintenance has been diverted to civilian uses.
Russia’s no different from places like Moldova and Ukraine, corruption-wise. Except Russia has oil. Gold. Titanium. Natural gas. Platinum. Rhodium. Diamonds. Russia has an African continent’s worth of natural resources, and then some. That’s why it’s better off than Moldova and Ukraine, not because Putin is some great leader.
“Was a time when “the EU was falling apart” but now we see countries can’t join fast enough”
The EU is still a big mess. These small countries are looking for a big friend in the playground.
After the overthrow of Putin, surely Russia will want to join the EU and NATO as well? It might be the only route to re-joining the global economy.
Yep....not surprised Moldova wants to jump on the Nato train.......EU continues to build the United States of Europe.
Wonder how many countries NATO will now fast track to membership. hey really can’t say yes to Ukraine and no to these other countries.
Well this is the continuation of putting nations into blocks......Eu’s the United States of Erupe increasing.
Not quite. Moldova sees this as a chance to prevent being absorbed into Russia again
It is a kleptocracy. Joining the EU or even attempting to fo so may help it step out of corruption
Putin has been great at getting countries to consider joining the EU and NATO
Great! That means the Krauts and the Frogs will suit up and go deal with Vlad, just like old times for them.
Moldova, next up on the mongoloid KGB thug’s sights.
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