Foreign Affairs on October 1–15, 2006

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

Moldovan Speaker Marian Lupu and the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Rene van der Linden, have discussed the assessment of progresses achieved by Moldova in implementing the Council of Europe accession requirements. According to Lupu, the next PACE session in February will discuss the case of Moldova. The PACE president welcomed progresses linked to activity of the Moldovan Parliament, highlighting especially the importance of adopting and implementing the laws on civil society, mass media, judicial system and penitentiary system.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is examining the second case filed by political prisoners of the Tiraspol regime Andrei Ivantoc and Tudor Petrov-Popa, members of the Ilascu Group. According to lawyer Vladislav Gribincea, the ECHR examines the case on basis of applications lodged by Andrei Ivantoc, his wife Eudochia Ivantoc, Tudor Petrov-Popa and his son Victor Petrov on June 10, 2005. The applicants sought the sentencing of the Moldovan and Russian Governments for non-execution of the July 8, 2004 ECHR judgment, but the Russian Federation has defied all these summons even in the period when it chairs the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Republic of Moldova — European Union

The European Union has donated 350 computers and afferent hardware worth 350,000 euros to Moldovan healthcare institutions. The hardware will be used to implement modern information technologies, to shorten the time for paper fill-in, to create a database of patients, to provide access to information about modern medical treatments. The EU-funded Public Health Reform Project is implemented in Moldova by international companies specialised in medical assistance.

The Council of Interior and Justice Ministers of the European Union decided in early October to start the procedures needed for the drafting of a mandate for a visa facilitation and readmission agreement with Moldova. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the European Commission will table the draft negotiation mandate to EU member states by early December. The decision to start negotiations on visa facilitation and readmission agreement with Moldova completes an initiative on opening of a joint centre in Chisinau to issue EU visas.

The EU Council has adopted a series of measures regarding small traffic at external borders of the community. The approved regulation introduces a small border traffic permit which will be granted for free to residents of localities near EU borders (30 kilometres from border) and will allow them to benefit of a series of facilities: border crossing points for residents of the border area only; special passages at common checkpoints. They will have to stay maximum three months. Member states will have to sign bilateral agreements with neighbouring countries in order to implement the regime. Romania will be able to sign an agreement on implementation of this regime with Moldova after all EU accession procedures are completed.

The Moldova-EU Cooperation Subcommittee on Trade and Investments has held a sitting in Brussels. It assessed the process of implementation of these chapters of the EU-Moldova Action Plan. The awarding of Autonomous Trade Preferences (ATP) was a key issue tackled by Moldova.

Republic of Moldova — Romania

Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu has said that starting January 1, 2007 the Romanian authorities will issue free and urgent visas to Moldovans without demanding more acts, while holders of service and diplomatic passports will not need visas to enter Romania. Foreign ministers of Romania and Moldova will sign soon the intergovernmental agreement between the two countries on visa regime. The Romanian premier noted that his country will assist Moldova to join the EU by surveying the negotiation process. Tariceanu delivered these statements after a meeting with Moldova Premier Vasile Tarlev, who visited Bucharest to sign the Chart of good neighbourhood relations, stability, security and cooperation in South East Europe.

According to representatives of Romanian consular authorities, the process of application for regaining of Romanian citizenship by Moldovan citizens is on the rise. According to the deputy consul of Romania in Chisinau, 300,000 recommended letters were received from Moldova in August-September, with senders willing to regain the Romanian citizenship and some of the envelopes had more than one application in them so the number could actually be somewhat higher.

Romanian Foreign Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu considers that commercial relations with Moldova will become more active after Romania joins the EU Ungureanu stated to the newspaper “Gardianul” that commercial relations with Moldova registered a record in 2006, growing visibly compared with the similar period of last year, with overall commercial exchanges exceeding 260 million dollars in the first seven months of this year, of which about 197 million dollars is Romanian export. At the same time, Romanian investments in Moldovan economy account for maximum 45 million dollars.

Republic of Moldova — Russian Federation

On October 6, the Russian State Duma adopted a declaration “On results of the September 17 referendum in Transnistria.” Russian lawmakers noted that “the referendum in the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic took place in full accordance with international legal norms and legislation of the Transnistrian Moldovan Republic,” while “the international community must take the results into consideration and Russia intends to build its policy on basis of opinion of the Transnistrian people.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigori Karasin has told a meeting with separatist leader Igor Smirnov in Tiraspol that the results of the Transnistrian referendum “must be taken into account in the process of settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.” Karasin reiterated that the “Transnistrian people expressed its confidence for its leadership” at the September 17 referendum.

Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Andrei Stratan has met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow. It was noted during talks that the August meeting between Moldovan and Russian presidents gave an impulse to the dialogue between the two states, which developed through negotiations between co-chairmen of the Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation. The Russian foreign department said that the sides tackled key problems linked to bilateral relations, paid a great attention to the political settlement of the Transnistrian conflict.

The co-chairman of the Moldovan-Russian intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation, Andrei Fursenko, said that Moldova makes concrete steps toward a better quality of wines and this increases the chances to resume the wine exports to the Russian Federation. Commenting on outcome of meetings that he had in Chisinau, Fursenko said that Moscow and Chisinau “have found coordinated versions to resolve problems related to gas and wine deliveries.”

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has said that Moscow “has no intention to annex the territories of the so-called «frozen conflicts» but it is responsible for security of fellow citizens who live there.” Ivanov considers that many residents from these areas “have never been citizens of Moldova or Georgia, but of the Soviet Union and had the possibility to choose the personal citizenship.”

The Phyto-sanitary Service Rospotrebnadzor tests the juices imported from Moldova and Georgia in order to establish “the legality of their presence on Russian market” and their compliance with Russian quality standards. Moldovan producers said that an eventual ban of juice exports would not affect them because exports to the Russian market are insignificant, as they have reoriented their deliveries to western markets with much time before the “wine crisis”. At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor continues to ban the sale of Moldovan spirits in Russia, extending controls on importation of production from Belarus and Ukraine, which is considered to be made from Moldovan raw material.

According to data of the National Bank of Moldova, Moldova’s balance of payments with the Russian Federation dropped down to 88.4 million dollars in the first seven months of 2006, compared with 172.41 million dollars in the similar period of the precedent year. At the same time, individuals transferred more than 114 million dollars from the Russian Federation to Moldova in the second quarter of this year.

Moldova in the world

Moldova has signed the Chart of good neighbourhood relations, stability, security and cooperation in South East Europe, a document of reference for activity in the South East Europe Cooperation Process.

Moldova has substantially increased the wine deliveries to the West after the Russian Federation embargoed the Moldovan wines. According to specialists of the Agri-Industrial Agency “MoldovaVin”, exports to other countries (Romania, Poland, Germany, and others) rose 3.2-fold in January-July, compared with the similar period of 2005, up to 18 million dollars. At the same time, Moldovan wine exports to some CIS members (Ukraine, Belarus) have also grown.

The British publications “Daily Star”, “Daily Telegraph” and “Daily Mail” warn their readers that hundreds of thousands of migrants from Moldova have applied for Romanian citizenship in a move to obtain access to the EU labour market. The papers say in comments to reports by Bucharest authorities regarding the considerable rise of the number of Moldovans seeking the Romanian citizenship that these applicants from Europe’s poorest country will flood the EU, affecting the British labour market.

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