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Foreign Affairs on December 20, 2005 – January 15, 2006

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The Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

A report by the Council of Europe (CoE) secretariat on cooperation for adjustment of Moldovan legislation to the community norms indicates a series of shortcomings and an inefficient transparency level which is very needed in this process. The Strasbourg authorities are concerned mostly with independence of judiciary system, qualification of magistrates and execution of judgments. They are also concerned with situation of audiovisual, transformation of TeleRadio-Moldova into an authentic public institution, regulations on freedom of consciousness and religion. Also, European experts are unsatisfied with the mechanism of approval of draft legislative documents on these fields and lack of communications regarding the taking into consideration of international expertise for final adoption of many laws.

The Moldovan Government did not contest a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on Sarban vs Moldova case (issued three months ago), a fact that determines the enactment of this ruling and its execution by Chisinau authorities. Earlier, Vladimir Sarban was released from custody and home arrest and he was obliged not to leave the residence locality.

The Republic of Moldova — European Union

The presidents of Moldova and Ukraine signed a joint statement to the European Union (E.U.) on January 3, 2006, tackling the problem of natural gas supplies by the Russian Federation. The two presidents described the actions of the Russian authorities as “part of a scenario of pressure and energy blackmail aimed to undermine the economic development of the two countries,” while the prices demanded by Gazprom were “arbitrarily established.” The E.U. was invited to assist the two countries in reaching the following goals:

We note that the Austrian E.U. presidency has already invited the Moldovan authorities “to resume the negotiations with Gazprom as soon as possible and to solve the problem of supply of natural gas from the Russian Federation,” but it did not declare the participation of community authorities in this process.

Moldova was included in the Generalised System of Preferences of the E.U. (known as GSP+). This fact means annulment of customs duties and importation shares for a series of Moldovan goods. At the same time, the restrictions and taxes for some priority products made in Moldova, including wines, a number of agricultural canned products, remain effective.

The Austrian authorities delivered a series of statements on development perspectives of the community while taking over the E.U. presidency, making tangents with the situation in Moldova as well. Austria will pay an increased attention to countries in the Balkan area which do not have access to the E.U. yet, but this country is one of the most sceptical as regards the enlargement process, with many Austrians considering that a number of their problems, including unemployment, results from entry of several countries in the E.U. The Austrian president stated to mass media that he “excludes the possibility to admit the Republic of Moldova besides with Ukraine and Belarus in the E.U.”

Speaking about perspective to accept Croatia, Macedonia and Ukraine, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said that “no new enlargement of the E.U. should take place as long as new institutions were not adopted yet.”

The Republic of Moldova — Ukraine

According to a joint statement of the Chisinau and Kiev prime ministers, the transit of Moldovan goods at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border will be based on the customs specimen of Moldova alone starting January 25, 2006. The Moldovan Government had adopted decisions needed in this regard long ago, but the Ukrainian authorities continue to admit the exportation of Transnistrian goods without legal origin and conformity documents in their territory, though they recognise these documents. This practice continues even after the start of the monitoring of the E.U. specialised mission to the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. In order to ensure the implementation of new agreements, the Moldovan Government must improve the mechanism of exportation and importation of production by businesses from eastern districts of the republic and modify its previous decisions in the area:

  1. Decision # 1001 of September 19, 2001 on declaration of goods by businesses based in the eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova (it exempts all goods of Transnistria-based producers from payment for importation rights, as well as payment of a single tax of 0.2 percent for customs procedures).

  2. Decision # 815 of August 2, 2005 on regularization of inflows of goods that represent the object of foreign trade activity of Transnistria (stipulates the keeping of evidence of Transnistria-based businesses that hold import-export operations by the State Chamber of Registration, after presentation of some documents and special requests, with temporary registration in the State Register of Enterprises, as well as awarding of certain origin certificates by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moldova only to enterprises with permanent State Chamber of Registration.

Energy officials from Kiev said that a joint commission will be created by January 20, 2006 to deal with gas supply, including to Moldova. According to the Ukrainian officials, the exports will be ensured by a joint venture created by the Ukrainian society Naftogaz and RosUkrEnergo company. The needs of our country are estimated at about 3.4 billion cubic metres, while the new enterprise could ensure supplies of about 2.5 billion cubic metres both from Russian gas, and from gas from Asian countries (Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan).

Moldova in the world

Moldova was deprived of the right to vote in the U.N. General Assembly because of failure to pay financial contributions to the budget of the organisation. The 20 countries that did not honour the financial commitments towards U.N. include Georgia and Tajikistan, but these countries have restructured their debts and kept the right to vote. Officials of the Foreign and European Integration Ministry said that Moldova will transfer the debt (about 38,000 dollars) by late January and will regain the right to vote in the U.N. General Assembly this way.

The third 11-strong contingent of bomb experts of the National Army of Moldova left for Iraq on January 13, 2006 to participate in the international post-conflict mission. The Moldovan military exert their mission on basis of contracts and they accepted to participate in this mission voluntarily. Their mission is to destroy mines in the territory and to defuse explosive objects.

December 6–19, 2005 January 16–31, 2006