President Costa, President von der Leyen - thank you.

Thank you for the welcome, and for a summit that carries our partnership forward.

Our joint declaration is clear: Moldova's future is within the European Union. And last Monday, in Luxembourg, we opened the first cluster of our accession negotiations - the cluster on fundamentals. Rule of law, democratic institutions, and fundamental rights are at the heart of the European project.

So allow me to share with you where Moldova stands today.

On the rule of law, the change is real. In five years, we climbed twenty-five places in the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, and fourteen on the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index. Our courts delivered convictions in major corruption cases.

The vetting of judges and prosecutors is delivering results - sixty percent of judges are already assessed - and we will complete this process in the near future. In a single year, citizens' trust in the judiciary has nearly doubled. People who believed they stood above the law have learned that the law applies to everyone.

On fundamental rights, progress is also measurable. We rank thirty-first in the press freedom index by Reporters without borders, the best in our region. Last year, Moldova entered the World Economic Forum's top ten for gender equality. We are widening equal rights and equal opportunities for every Moldovan.

On the economy, Europe is already our home market.

The EU is our largest trading partner. More than half of our trade in goods is with Europe. European investment has grown by nearly thirty percent in four years. The Moldova Growth Plan is being translated into concrete projects. Thank you for that.

And today we welcome three new agreements. Gebauer & Griller and the European Commission sign a Letter of Intent, tying our automotive sector deeper into European industrial value chains. The Commission and our HiTech Park are joining forces to build a MedTech cluster.

And our Ministry of Education and Research signs a Research Framework Arrangement with the Commission's Joint Research Centre, to advance research and innovation together.

On energy, the transformation is clearest. Four years ago, Moldova relied entirely on Russia as its single supplier. Today we stand free of that dependency - a move that no single government dared to take for three decades. We connected our grid to Europe. We grew renewables from three to twenty-five percent of our electricity mix. We did this during a crisis, with a war next door. We turned our greatest vulnerability into a strength. Citizens stood by our side despite unprecedented economic hardships resulting from increased costs.

On security, Moldova is already a contributor to Europe. Our peacekeepers serve in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Lebanon. Our firefighters deploy across Europe when disaster strikes.

We share hard-won experience in countering Russian disinformation, cyberattacks, and dirty money - from the front line of the fight for democracy. We stand with Ukraine, whose resilience keeps Moldova at peace.

During our chairmanship of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers, we advanced the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which will sit in The Hague.

And we are doing more than the EU asks us. We have taken on one of our hardest reforms yet - of our administrative and territorial structure - to bring better public services closer to our people.

This is the track record behind our European choice: commitments made and kept, under difficult conditions. We are delivering while facing a hybrid war - information manipulation, electoral interference, energy blackmail, cyberattacks - designed to divide us and pull us off our European path.

We stood firm. We protected the integrity of our elections. We strengthened our institutions and didn't allow dirty money to buy power. We invested in our cyber defences and built the tools to counter foreign manipulation.

We have developed this democratic resilience which is now the foundation of everything else we are building. That is the strength we bring to this moment.

Dear Ursula, dear Antonio,

The alignment we have today is rare - a clear mandate from our citizens, reform momentum at home, and the recognition in European capitals that enlargement is the best investment in EU security.

Windows like this open, and they close. Ours is open now. So this is a race against time, and we intend to win it. We ask for one thing - a process built on merit. We stand ready to open all the remaining clusters immediately, and both the Commission and the Council confirm that we are ready.

Help us make the best of this moment. We will keep delivering - with full responsibility, for our citizens, who deserve peace, security, and prosperity, at home, in the European family.

President Costa, President von der Leyen - Moldova is doing its part. We trust the 27 member states to do the same.

Aș dori să mă adresez acum celor de-acasă:

Astăzi, la Bruxelles, parteneriatul Moldovei cu Uniunea Europeană a devenit mai puternic. Săptămâna trecută am deschis negocieri pe primul grup de capitole - cel al valorilor fundamentale.

Munca noastră dă roade. Reformele sunt recunoscute și răsplătite - cu fonduri europene, cu investiții, cu încredere. Ne vom ține de cuvânt: vom continua să îndeplinim condițiile, cu toată responsabilitatea.

Iar pe măsură ce mergem înainte, fiecare pas aduce rezultate concrete pentru oameni - pace, siguranță și oportunități, acasă, în Moldova, în familia europeană.