The Moldovan Parliament supported the country's application for EU accession

Moldova's parliament approved a call to continue efforts to join the European Union, but the opposition walked out of the vote and separatists in Transnistria called on authorities to drop their claims to the enclave.
President Maia Sandu, who says Russia is Moldova's biggest security threat, has made EU membership a cornerstone of her rule in the former Soviet state, which lies between Ukraine and Romania.
An outspoken opponent of Russia's war in Ukraine, she called for a referendum on EU membership this year.
After a debate coinciding with the EU summit in Brussels, Parliament adopted by 54 votes to 0 a declaration which said: "Only joining Europe can guarantee the country's future as a sovereign, neutral and fully fledged democratic state".
It defines EU integration as "Moldova's highest priority national project". Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe.
The opposition Bloc of Communists and Socialists, which sympathizes with Moscow, left the parliamentary hall.
In Transnistria, a piece of land that broke away from Moldova when the Soviet Union collapsed, self-proclaimed President Vadim Krasnoselski called on Moldovan authorities to recognize its territorial independence and renounce all claims to it.
"There is no other way out," he declared on enclave television. "You can no longer talk about autonomy. You must leave these territories".
According to him, his region is "not separatist", but a "normal neighbor" that strives for peace and stability.
Transnistria, which is heavily dependent on Russian financial support, has no international recognition, not even from Moscow.
For 30 years, it has remained on Moldova's eastern border without much turmoil, but tensions rose after Moldovan authorities imposed tariffs on all goods entering and leaving the region in January.
Last month, elected officials called on Moscow for diplomatic measures to protect the region.
An EU summit last year gave the go-ahead for membership talks with both Ukraine and Moldova, but no date was announced for the start of talks, and there was no statement on the matter at the March 21 meeting in Brussels.
Moldova is embroiled in an escalating dispute with Russia, with the war in Ukraine and Transnistria at the center of attention.
In the past week, authorities have twice summoned the Russian ambassador over Moscow's decision to open six polling stations in the enclave for Russia's presidential election, and a Russian diplomat was ordered to leave the country.
Moldova faces disputes with a second region in the south of the country, Gagauzia, whose leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin this month and is linked to a fugitive pro-Russian businessman sentenced in absentia to 15 years for massive fraud./BGNES