{"id":346621,"date":"2025-08-15T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346621\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:21:10","slug":"eu-considers-advancing-moldovas-accession-talks-ahead-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/346621\/","title":{"rendered":"EU considers advancing Moldova\u2019s accession talks ahead of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union is weighing a significant step in Moldova\u2019s accession process that could put it ahead of Ukraine for the first time, raising sensitive geopolitical and diplomatic questions just weeks ahead of Moldova\u2019s parliamentary elections on September 28.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to three diplomats and an EU official, EU member states are considering opening a first \u201cnegotiating cluster\u201d with Moldova \u2014 a key legal milestone on the path to EU membership \u2014 early next month, following a General Affairs Council meeting on September 1, Caliber.Az <\/strong><\/a>reports, citing<\/strong><\/a> foreign media.<\/p>\n

The move would be a major political win for Moldovan President Maia Sandu, whose pro-EU party is campaigning in the face of intensified Russian interference. \u201cA way needs to be found to open the first cluster,\u201d said Siegfried Mure\u0219an, a conservative EU lawmaker who chairs the EU-Moldova Association Committee in the European Parliament. \u201cIt would send a signal to Russia. It would take away the argument for the narrative of the Russians, which is to say that there is no progress on the path to EU membership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Moldova and Ukraine received EU candidate status in 2023 and have undertaken significant reforms to align with EU standards. A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed, \u201cThere is no objective reason to block Cluster 1.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Ukraine\u2019s candidacy is currently being blocked by Hungary. Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has made opposing Ukraine\u2019s EU entry a key component of his reelection campaign, leaving Ukraine unable to secure the unanimous support required to proceed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a danger here of sending the wrong signal to Ukrainians,\u201d warned a Ukrainian diplomat. \u201cAt a time when future peace is being discussed in Alaska, we need to keep the perspective of EU membership as strong as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

To offset potential Ukrainian frustration, EU officials are exploring alternative gestures, including granting Kyiv access to EU programs like Horizon Europe and Erasmus. \u201cThere are a lot of things we can do to bring Ukraine closer to Europe in other ways than the formal negotiation procedure,\u201d said one EU diplomat.<\/p>\n

Some argue Trump could pressure Orb\u00e1n to lift his opposition, especially if Ukraine\u2019s EU path becomes part of a potential peace deal. \u201cThis is a historic moment and you have to look at this situation in its totality. EU membership is a crucial part of any peace deal,\u201d the diplomat added.<\/p>\n

By Vafa Guliyeva<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union is weighing a significant step in Moldova\u2019s accession process that could put it ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[23355,7503,7502,2000,299,5187,23356,23359,466,23358,23357,23354],"class_list":{"0":"post-346621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-analysis-of-azerbaijan","9":"tag-azerbaijan","10":"tag-baku","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-important-news-of-azerbaijan","15":"tag-international-experts","16":"tag-interviews","17":"tag-interviews-with-azerbaijani-analysts","18":"tag-news-from-baku","19":"tag-news-of-azerbaijan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115032993600575988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}