EU legal approximation and future EU accession negotiations: workshop with the representatives of the Moldovan state institutions

On 16 June 2022, the EU-funded project “Support for structured policy dialogue, coordination of the implementation of the Association Agreement (AA) and enhancement of the legal approximation process for the Republic of Moldova” organised in Chișinău a roundtable on EU approximation and the Moldova’s future EU accession process.

Altogether, 45 civil servants took part in the roundtable, representatives from the Centre for Legal Approximation, other State Chancellery departments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, and the Parliament’s civil service. 

Approximation of the national legislation with the EU acquis is one of the cornerstones of EU accession negotiations. After Moldova’s application for EU membership and its subsequent receipt of EU Candidate State status on 23 June 2022, such approximation of Moldova’s legislation has now gained the highest priority.

The 1993 European Council held in Copenhagen defined the third criterion for accession to the EU as being “the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political unification as well as Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)”. A country which wishes to join the EU must approximate its national legislation with the EU acquis during the EU accession negotiations. The EU acquis, as such, is not a subject of the country’s EU accession negotiations as the country must implement the entire EU acquis. Instead, the country negotiates about “how” and “when” it will fully implement the entire EU acquis in its legal system. 

This approach has been applied since 1973 and the first wave of enlargement of the European Economic Community (which later became the European Union). As of the day of accession, the EU acquis will be implemented in the territory of a new EU Member State in the same way as it is implemented in the territories of all other EU Member States. The only exceptions to this rule are possible transitional arrangements that can be exceptionally agreed during the accession negotiations. These exceptions are negotiated taking into consideration the specific situation in a candidate country and allow it not to fully implement certain (specifically-defined) EU acts in its territory for a limited period after its accession or to implement it in a specific way. These exceptions are very limited in time and scope.

The main topics discussed during the roundtable included: i) Moldova’s experience with the EU Questionnaire and the next steps; ii) the necessary steps and documents in EU accession negotiations and the approximation process; iii) the role of the “National Programme for the adoption of the acquis” (NPAA) as the main planning document for the EU accession negotiation process used by central and eastern European countries in addition to those from Western Balkan, which lists the priorities of the EU accession process/negotiations and the commitments arising out of the Association Agreement and iv) the need for translation of Moldova’s documents and legislation into English for the accession negotiation process and to organise the translation service.

Mr. Primož Vehar, Project Team Leader, moderated the discussion and shared Slovenia’s experience during its EU accession process where he was responsible for legal harmonisation process and AA implementation within the Government and was later also Secretary of the EU Affairs Parliamentary Committee. Additionally, Mr. Vladimir Medjak, former Assistant Director of the Serbia Government Office for European Integration (who was responsible for the harmonisation of legislation and AA implementation) and former Chief Lawyer of Serbia’s accession negotiation team shared Serbia’s experiences, and Ms. Inese Birzniece, former MP of the Latvia Parliament and a former Latvia Justice Attaché to the EU, shared Latvia’s experience.

The experts from Latvia and Slovenia and candidate country – Serbia, explained the various steps of the EU accession process, which documents are prepared in this process as well as how to prepare these documents and in which order. They especially emphasized the increasing importance of the screening phase of negotiations, as demonstrated by the current round of accession negotiations for Montenegro and for Serbia, and the importance of the approximation process in this phase. The experts placed particular attention to benchmarks as an EU tool for streamlining the reform process in the Candidate country, the links between accession and the Association Agreement (AA), and how unfulfilled obligations from the AA become benchmarks in the accession negotiations. 

Another focus of the roundtable included explanations of the new accession negotiation methodology introduced in 2020 and its effects on the Candidate country’s reform process: The EU acquis chapters have been reorganised into six clusters and an increased focus is placed on the rule of law area from the very beginning. Negotiations are in English, a fact which emphasises the need to establish a proper translation/terminology mechanism which will ensure quality translations of Moldova’s documents (including legislation) during the accession negotiations. 

The main conclusions of the experts throughout this roundtable were that the entire process of accession negotiations cannot be run successfully without: 1) a coordination mechanism organised around the 35 EU negotiation chapters covering the entire EU acquis and 2) a single planning document, the National Programme for the Adoption of the EU acquis (NPAA) which plans the entire process. The NPAA covers the entire EU acquis divided into the 35 negotiation chapters and provides the basis for preparing for the screening process as well as for Moldova’s negotiation positions in each of these 35 chapters, and for monitoring Moldova’s implementation of the obligations undertaken during the negotiation process.

The EU-funded project “Support for structured policy dialogue, coordination of the implementation of the Association Agreement and enhancement of the legal approximation process in the Republic of Moldova” aims at increasing the capacities of the Government of the Republic of Moldova and other key national institutions in implementing the EU-Republic of Moldova Association Agreement. The Project’s work is arranged into 4 components: i) contributing to the further enhancement of structured policy dialogue with civil society; ii) improving policy development mechanisms for adequate budgeting of strategic documents; iii) supporting the legal approximation process by providing technical expertise and capacity building; iv) upgrading the IT systems in public administration supporting the implementation of the Association Agreement. 

The Project is implemented by a consortium led by DAI for a five-year implementation period until June 2025.