European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has stated that Ukraine and Moldova will continue moving along the path toward European integration "at their own speed, implementing different reforms," European Pravda reports.
"Once the first cluster opens, each candidate country is responsible for itself. Since they must implement reforms – and they have to implement different reforms, depending on which candidate country we are talking about," von der Leyen said following the conclusion of the Moldova-EU summit on Monday.
Answering journalists' questions regarding the prospects for further opening of clusters, she emphasized that she was "speaking only about Moldova."
"I believe that a merit-based process is much better for Moldova than the term 'as soon as possible.' Because 'as soon as possible' means nothing. But a merit-based process clearly points you to the fundamentals of our methodology, which was agreed upon by all 27 member states," the European Commission President noted.
As reported, on June 19, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for opening the remaining negotiating clusters for Ukraine's accession to the EU before the end of the Cypriot presidency.
Earlier, it was reported that on June 12, Cyprus, holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, officially announced the holding of intergovernmental conferences with Ukraine and Moldova on June 15, at which the first negotiating cluster for accession to the European Union would be opened.
