President Nicusor Dan on Tuesday in Timisoara said that he could bet that the Republic of Moldova will be a member of the European Union in three years' time, both because there is internal will and because European countries support the inclusion of this state as soon as possible.
At the conference "Europe at the Crossroads - Security, Prosperity and Our Common Future" in Timisoara, which included a question session for Nicusor Dan moderated by Mayor Dominic Fritz, the president was asked if he believes that Moldova is ready to join the EU.
"Yes, I am convinced it is; I would bet that in three years from now Moldova will be a member of the European Union. Because, beyond all the difficulties that the country is going through - the most obvious, blatant being the price of gas, which has increased five, six, seven times, due to the very clear position it has had towards Russia - the administration and most of the citizens support the European path and in this cycle, which means president plus Parliament for four years, Moldova will do everything in its power to enter the European Union. On the other hand, within the European Union there is unanimity for Moldova to enter, if it meets the conditions," the president replied.
He added that Romania's help matters in the accession process, but at the diplomatic level the neighbouring country may need help only in specific matters, "because there is the will at the level of the European Union for Moldova to become a member."
"On many other things, such as cybersecurity, Romania is transparently in agreement with its partners, at the request of the Moldovan authorities, Romania is present and was even in the weeks and months before the elections," Dan said.
He added that whenever we are asked for help on topics such as pre-accession, post-accession and European funds, specialists from our country will work with the relevant authorities of Moldova.
Dan was also asked about the result of the recent parliamentary election in Moldova and how he received them. He replied that the elections in the neighbouring country were "a very serious matter."
"I confess that I followed them all day, I also gave some messages for the Basarabia citizens of Romania, I insist on this terminology. (...) Of course, the result is absolutely encouraging. You know that I have been to the Republic of Moldova several times and the concerns were great. We had the campaign for the presidential election and the referendum in 2024, in which the estimates were that 80,000, maybe even 100,000 votes, were bought by the Sor network. The money that Russia invested in this campaign was much more than in 2024 and a month and a half or two before the authorities saw that the important networks, including the CEC, had been penetrated by someone, Russia is suspected, and then it was a race against time for the basic infrastructure for the elections to be put back into operation," said the President.
He showed how serious it would have been for the neighbouring country to come under the influence of the Russians.
"Think about what it would have meant, if we talk only about the security zone, what it would have meant for Russia to be able to complete it, to bring, to change the troops it has in Transnistria... What a pressure this would have been on Moldova and Romania and Ukraine!"
Asked why Moldova managed to defend itself better than Romania from Russia's hybrid attacks, Dan said that the neighbouring country "was forewarned."
"People expected in 2024 that Russia would try to influence the elections and especially the referendum. (...) In short, the Republic of Moldova was forewarned, where they felt they had no resources, they asked for help from European countries and they received it," Dan said.
Instead, he said Romania was "caught on the wrong foot" due to the scale and technological speed of the operation carried out in favour of Calin Georgescu in the 2024 presidential election.
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