Foreign Affairs on July 17–31, 2006

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Rene van der Linden, has paid an official working visit to Chisinau. His agenda included meetings with Moldovan authorities, an address to the Parliament, meetings with leaders of parliamentary parties, representatives of NGOs. The PACE president told a news conference on totals of his visit that the CoE monitoring on Moldova will become deeper and will focus on implementation of adopted acts. He noted that Moldova must seriously get ready to become member of the E.U., in order to be sure that it will not be denied when its time to join this organisation will come. The PACE representative considers that Moldova’s entry process will be long but this final perspective is certain for Moldova.

Republic of Moldova — European Union

Foreign ministers of E.U. member states have saluted the complete abolition of death penalty in Moldova.

The European Commission will report on opportunities of a facilitated visa regime for Moldova till the October-scheduled Meeting of the Council of Justice and Interior Ministers of the E.U. The possibility of facilitating the visa regime for Moldova and states in the Western Balkans was discussed at the meeting of the Council of Justice and Interior Ministers in Brussels. The council has invited the European Commission to launch consultations with E.U. member states in order to prepare the information needed to study the possibility of starting negotiations with Moldova on agreements regarding the facilitation of visa regime and readmission.

Tomasz Ciukaj, expert of customs and border management who has worked in Poland until now, was appointed to head the territorial office Chisinau of the E.U. Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine.

Republic of Moldova — Romania

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said that “Romania has supported Moldova in order to speed up the entry of this country in the E.U., but it seems that the Chisinau authorities «go another way.»” He delivered these statements at a conference held at the Dimitrie Cantemir University. The Romanian premier recalled that Moldova was invited to participate as full rights member in the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), steps that accelerate its European integration. According to Tariceanu “the Moldovan population and authorities must decide if they really want the European integration and must take supported efforts to back this desideratum.”

Republic of Moldova — Russian Federation

While the Chisinau authorities say that many proposals on resumption of exports of Moldovan production to the Russian Federation have been tabled, the chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Genadi Onishchenko, affirms that “Moscow has almost lost the hope regarding restart of dialogue on resumption of wine imports from Moldova.” He notes that “neither Chisinau, nor Tbilisi proposed a meeting on this issue, while the quality of alcohol production from the two countries does not improve.”

Moldova in the world

The International Monetary Fund and the European Union will provide a financial aid to Moldova to reduce the impact of higher gas prices and Russia’s restrictions against Moldovan wines. This statement was delivered by head of the IMF Mission to Moldova Thomas Richardson, who has mentioned the seriousness of the external shock that hit the Moldovan economy. The IMF representative noted that foreign donors will release preferential credits and grants to assist Moldova.

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