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BRUSSELS, Belgium — President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the EU to keep the membership processes of Ukraine and Moldova tied together on Oct. 15, risking holding back Moldova for years as Kyiv struggles to pass reforms.
Ukraine and Moldova are two of the EU's frontrunner countries for future membership of the bloc, and earlier that week, they took another step forward in their integration process.
The two countries have had their EU bids tied together thus far, an informal political decision taken by EU leaders, which was expected to end once both countries have opened all six enlargement clusters — to-do lists of reforms to fully align with the bloc.
"When Ukraine and Moldova are moving so closely together — that's great — when we are doing so much to support Moldova and create the conditions it needs – it would be simply wrong to split us apart on our way into the EU – I hope not. Morally wrong," Zelensky told EU leaders.
His argument for keeping Moldova together with Ukraine on the membership process rests on Kyiv "protecting Moldova from Russia's attempts to cause trouble through Transnistria," a Russian-occupied territory of Moldova that borders Ukraine.
"This takes serious work from our security services and intelligence. We even have to pull some of our military forces away from other tasks," Zelensky said.
There has been no public reaction from Moldova to the idea of keeping the bids tied together, but the most senior EU officials working on the bloc's enlargement have told the Kyiv Independent that Moldova is surging ahead with integration, far ahead of Ukraine.
"Moldova is adopting EU laws faster than any country since Hungary in 2002, and the body of laws to adopt is far bigger now," one senior EU official told the Kyiv Independent earlier.
EU leaders overnight adopted conclusions on enlargement that appeared to move toward separating the Moldovan and Ukrainian accession bids.
"The European Council recalls that the accession process is merit-based and that each candidate country advances in its accession negotiations on the basis of its individual progress," read the conclusions.
In any case, for now, the next step for both countries is to unlock the remaining two enlargement clusters, which are expected to happen before the end of the year.