Foreign Affairs on February 15–28, 2006

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

The Moldovan president met with Vladimir Philipov, special representative of the Council of Europe (CoE) secretary-general to Moldova, on February 15 and discussed the cooperation of Moldova within the CoE. A separate chapter of talks focussed on fulfilment of the schedule of legislative actions adopted with the purpose to settle the shortcomings signalled by the October 2005 Resolution and Recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe regarding the functioning of democratic institutions in Moldova. Voronin reiterated that the Moldovan authorities are interested to reach the high standards of CoE regarding the combat of corruption, consolidation of judiciary and local autonomy. He said that the fulfilment of the CoE criteria on democratic rights and freedoms besides the Moldova — E.U. Action Plan will encourage the progress of our country to the E.U. integration objective.

The special representative of the CoE secretary-general told a news conference on February 22, 2006 that Moldova must reform its justice, audiovisual and ensure the press freedom and free access to information, in order to demonstrate that it respects the criteria of an authentic democratic state.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has sentenced the Moldovan Government in the case “the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) vs Moldova”, obliging it to pay 4,000 euros in trial-related spending. PPCD has sought only trial-related spending because it is “aware of how grave will be the consequences on the Chisinau executive, if it should pay large amounts for moral and material damages.” In 2002, PPCD organised protests that were not authorised in line with Moldova’s legislation. As a result, the Justice Ministry has decided to suspend the activity of the party for one month. The national courts awarded victory to the Justice Ministry and the PPCD has appealed to the ECHR. The ECHR ruled that the Moldovan authorities have violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the freedom of meeting and association. It should be noted in the context that the Parliament has recently passed in the first reading a draft law that introduces the material responsibility of officials who are to blame for Moldova’s sanctioning by ECHR. The former justice minister is the acting secretary of the Supreme Security Council of the Moldovan Presidency.

Republic of Moldova — European Union

The Moldova — E.U. Action Plan turns one

The Moldova — E.U. Action Plan turned one on February 22 and the implementation of this document declared as priority of Moldova’s foreign policy was summarised and estimated on this occasion.

Representative of the European Commission have expressed satisfaction with accomplishments registered in the process of implementation of the Action Plan, but noted that still much work is to be done for insurance of human rights, combat of corruption, reformation of the judiciary, insurance of mass media and audiovisual. The head of the European Commission to Moldova named the opening of the European Commission Delegation in Chisinau, appointment of the E.U. special representative to Moldova and creation of the E.U. Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine, progress of economic reforms, and others, as important accomplishments.

The Foreign and European Integration Ministry appreciates that the authorities have accomplished many priorities indicated in the Action Plan, while 2006 will be a decisive year for the implementation process. The consolidation of democracy and of the state based on the rule of law, insurance of economic reforms, start of a dialogue with the E.U. regarding the facilitation of visa regime are among priorities. The authorities intend to draft a special programme on implementation of provisions of the plan, which would establish distinct areas and tasks by taking into account the included chapters.

Civil society representatives consider that the implementation of the Moldova — E.U. Action Plan has registered some progress, but the accomplishments could be more important. The Association for Participatory Democracy “ADEPT” and the “Expert-Grup” Centre have launched a first Report on independent monitoring of implementation of the Action Plan with the assistance of DFID. According to preliminary findings, a moderate progress was registered in a series of priority sectors stipulated by Action Plan, mostly due to the political will, social consensus and external factors. The stagnation in certain areas is also due to insufficient administrative capacities, inertia to get adapted to the new conditions created in the process of implementation of the plan and lack of appropriate economic and financial resources. The regress in some fields could be due to some temporary shortcomings or other singular factors of influence, while definitive conclusions should be based on further evolutions and capacities of authorities to correct or to eliminate the shortcomings. “ADEPT” and “Expert-Grup” consider that a programme of concrete actions differentiated on sectors, coordinated and implemented under strict monitoring of authorities and public opinion should be drafted for an ordered and progressive implementation of the Action Plan. Also, the E.U. should get involved more actively in this process, providing a technical, financial assistance and political support for the implementation of the Action Plan.

Cautious attitude towards E.U. enlargement

Several E.U. officials have indicated the need of a pause as regards the enlargement and inclusion of new candidates to the E.U. integration. The European commissioner for foreign policy,

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, has called for a “pause and reflection” regarding the future enlargement of the E.U. She considers that the E.U. population must get through the recent enlargement wave and it needs time for this purpose.

The E.U. commissioner for industry, Gunter Verheugen, has launched categorical forecasts, saying that the countries in the former Soviet Union will not become E.U. members the next 20 years.

The Foreign and European Integration Ministry said that the statements of the Brussels officials regarding Moldova’s perspectives to join the E.U. should not discourage the Moldovan authorities to implement the European integration policies and “nobody can show on the political map of Europe what country will join or will not join the E.U.” He argued this opinion through the fact that the idea to stop the E.U. enlargement was intensively spread after several countries have turned down the European Constitution, but the E.U. awarded the associate status to Albania and started negotiations with Croatia meanwhile.

Republic of Moldova — Romania

Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu has invited the Moldovan authorities to make more resolute steps in the European integration process, to pass from statements to concrete actions, which are more convincing than the pro-European rhetoric.

The Romanian minister examined some issues related to the Moldova-Romania relations while on a visit to Chisinau. The sides discussed the determination of the political status of the Moldovan-Romanian relations by the end of this year, with Romania proposing the signing of a partnership agreement for Europe. Victor Stepaniuc, representative of the ruling Communist Party, considers however that Moldova needs a basic treaty, a document that the Chisinau authorities are trying to sign for a long time. In reply, the Romanian foreign minister said that his country looks in future and “any document that will be signed between the two states that involves the executives of the two countries and the will of the political classes of Romania and Moldova aims to plan the future, not to return to the past insistently and without any result.” It should be noted that the Moldovan president did not comment univocally on this topic, while Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan said that Chisinau accepts to discuss the agreement within the bilateral partnership for Europe proposed by the Bucharest authorities, but a “basic document” will be examined to establish the bilateral relations.

The Romanian foreign minister said that a possible presentation of the Transnistrian settlement plan of Romania by Romanian leader was studied during his visit to Chisinau. Traian Basescu could present this plan in front of the Moldovan Parliament.

Ungureanu promised that he will insist on the Bucharest executive to simplify and to speed up the examination of applications of Moldovan citizens for the Romanian citizenship, without modifying substantially the law that regulates the citizenship awarding principles. This statement of the Romanian official has raised the dissatisfaction of some political forces in Bucharest, which feared that the interventions in the citizenship awarding process may lay obstacles on way of Romania’s integration in the E.U., but this opinion is not argued enough from political and legal points of view.

Republic of Moldova — Russian Federation

Valery Nesterushkin, ambassador with special missions of the Russian Foreign Ministry, has criticised the stance of Chisinau regarding the Transnistrian settlement, describing the intentions to negotiate with Ukraine by avoiding Russia as wrong. There is no “political disposition” for settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, the Russian official noted.

Russian Ambassador in Chisinau Nicolay Ryabov has met with students and professors of the International Relations Institute of Moldova and discussed issues related to the bilateral cooperation and latest political developments. Speaking about Moldovan-Russian relations, Ryabov said that the Russian Federation wants to strengthen these basic relations through mutual safety and benefit, in compliance with the friendship and cooperation treaty between the two sides.

The ambassador noted that the Russian Federation does not oppose the wish of Moldova to join the European area, as every sovereign and independent state makes its choice, though the integration process is complicated enough.

Speaking about the Transnistrian problem, Ryabov said that this is not a “black hole” of economy and the Ukrainian authorities also support this stance. He noted that Russia has never recognised the status of Transnistria as international law subject and the conflict must be settled “between the two participating sides.”

Asked to comment on the Pasat case and the statements of Anatoli Chubais in connection with the sentencing of the former defence minister, the Russian ambassador said: “The problem is simple: Pasat is a citizen of Moldova and that’s why Russia will not take any actions”; “Chubais is a manager, not a state functionary,” and “some official notes would transfer the conflict to an interstate level and this would be a mistake.”

Republic of Moldova in the world

The U.S. Embassy released a declaration on the trial of the former defence minister of Moldova on February 17. The U.S. expressed its disappointment with the recent trial of former Moldovan defence minister Valeriu Pasat, saying that the Moldovan Government made the right decision to sell the MiGs to the U.S. The U.S. regretted that Pasat’s trial was held behind closed doors and noted that the presiding judge refused to admit sworn statements offered by former U.S. officials involved with the sale. It called on the Government of Moldova to ensure that any future judicial proceedings, in this as in all cases, are carried out in full conformity with international human rights standards.

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