Foreign Affairs on October 1–15, 2007

European integration

10th Meeting of the EU-Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee

Chisinau hosted the 10^th Meeting of the European Union — Moldova Parliamentary Cooperation Committee (PCC) on October 1–2, 2007. PCC co-chairpersons Marianne Mikko on behalf of the European Parliament (EP) and Victor Stepaniuc on behalf of the Moldovan Parliament directed the PCC works. The meeting approved a final statement and recommendations for the EU-Moldova Cooperation Council.

EU-Moldova PCC welcomed Moldova’s efforts to implement the EU-Moldova Action Plan (EUMAP); reiterated the need for Moldovan authorities to redouble their efforts in order to implement democratic reforms in a series of areas such as respect for human rights, freedom of the media, respect for supremacy of the law; stressed that Moldova’s perspectives to join the EU are open; invited the European Commission to ensure the simultaneous enforcement of EU-Moldova agreements on facilitated visa regime and readmission of illegal migrants by January 1, 2008; called for resumption of the “Five-Plus-Two” Transdnistria settlement negotiations; rejected any parallels between Transdnistria and Kosovo, etc.

Marianne Mikko has stated to journalists at the end of the visit that Moldova still has much work to do in order to implement the EUMAP and this fact keeps the country far away from EU.

Signing of EU-Moldova agreements on facilitated visa regime and readmission

EU and Moldova signed facilitated visa application and readmission agreements in Brussels on October 10. Taking part in the signing ceremony were European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini, and Manuel Lobo Antunes, state secretary for European affairs of Portugal, the country which runs the Council Chairmanship, on behalf of the EU and Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Stratan, minister of foreign affairs and European integration, on behalf of Moldova. These agreements were initialled on April 25, 2007, when the Common Application Centre (CAC) opened in Chisinau.

According to a joint press release by EU institutions, the facilitated visa application agreement maintains the 35-euro price for a Schengen visa for Moldovan citizens instead of 60 Euros and it even excludes the visa costs for certain categories of applicants. Also, the documents needed to apply for a visa will be simplified for certain applicants, for example, businessmen, students, journalists, and others. Certain categories of applicants who often travel to the EU will be issued multi-visas for a long term. Holders of diplomatic passports will not need visas to enter the EU. It is worth to note that the facilitated visa application agreement will not cover the United Kingdom and Ireland, which are not part of the Schengen area.

The readmission agreement regulates the management of illegal migration. It obliges the sides to reciprocally readmit the illegal migrants. Even more, it obliges the EU and Moldova to readmit the citizens of a third side who transited the territory of one or another country when they intended to enter the EU or Moldova.

Now the EP is expected to issue an opinion on these agreements and it is hoped that the documents will be enforced by January 1, 2008. Meantime, European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini handed in the two EU-Moldova agreements to President Vladimir Voronin in Chisinau on October 14.

Beyond the formal dimension of handing in the agreements, which could be sent to Chisinau via diplomatic post, Frattini’s visit was a message of EU political support for Moldova. Moldova was hinted that the EU is also concerned with its problems and the latter is ready to continue supporting Moldova if it honours its commitments.

NCEI

Continuing the tradition introduced on September 13, 2007, the National Commission for European Integration (NCEI) held two sittings on October 4 and 12.

NCEI chairman Vasile Tarlev demanded public institutions at the October 4 sitting to work hard in order to create an ample information space regarding the results of implementation of EUMAP.

The sittings heard reports by the Ministry of Reintegration, Interior Ministry (IM), Ministry of Information Development, Information and Security Service, Centre for the Struggle Against Economic Crimes and Corruption (CSECC), Border Guard Service (BGS). Tarlev instructed IM, BGS and CSECC to remedy the signalled shortcomings by October 16 and to execute all tasks related to implementation of EUMAP.

CAC

Italian Ambassador to Moldova Daniele Mancini has announced that his country will join the Common Application Centre (CAC) inside the Hungarian Embassy in Chisinau starting January 1, 2008.

Bilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Romania

The relations between Moldova and Romania have been reduced to incidents without plausible explanations in the period concerned. Some delegations of Romanian functionaries invited to attend festivities on the Holiday of Chisinau were denied to enter Moldova on October 12. Moldovan border guards invoked the lack of original invitations in order to justify their refusal.

Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu notified the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council in Luxembourg on October 15 over the incident at the Leuseni border crossing point. The problem was raised to consider a common standpoint of the EU for the October 25-scheduled 8^th EU-Moldova Cooperation Committee.

To recall that under existing regulations, EU citizens do not need visas and other documents to justify their staying in Moldova starting January 1, 2007.

Republic of Moldova — Russia

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin has met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a summit of CIS leaders. They discussed the bilateral economic relations, in particular, the resumption of Moldovan wine exports to the Russian Federation and issues related to the Transdnistrian problem.

Shortly after the Dushanbe CIS Summit, the Moldova-Vin Agency reported that Moldovan producers have “restarted” the wine exports to the Russian Federation. Nicolae Casim, director of the national spirits record centre, stated to BASA-press that companies Vismos and DK-Intertrade have purchased trademarks to export wines to Russia, while Migdal-P, Calarasi-Divin and Lion-Gri have applied for trademarks.

Multilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe

PACE session

The autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has taken place in the period concerned. Moldovan Speaker Marian Lupu led the Moldovan parliamentary delegation at the session of the Strasbourg forum.

The PACE session approved a report on Moldova’s respect for commitments towards Council of Europe (CoE). Since the last monitoring report in 2005, Moldova has advanced significantly on the path of democratic reforms, reads the report, and Moldova has signed 63 Conventions dealing with the country’s commitments to the CoE. However, further improvements should be made to the legislation on the judiciary, the general prosecutor’s office, political parties and local self-government, as well as electoral legislation and practices.

The Assembly invited the Moldovan authorities to take concrete measures in order to move closer to honouring all country’s commitments, so that the closing of the monitoring procedure may be envisaged in the foreseeable future.

ECHR judgments

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has passed three judgments on Moldova in the period concerned, in particular, in cases Clionov vs. Moldova, Grivneac vs. Moldova and Curararu vs. Moldova. The Strasbourg-based Court indicated the violation of the rights to a fair trial and property protection in all these cases.

It obliged Moldova to pay 300 Euros in pecuniary damages and 2,700 Euros in non-pecuniary damages to the applicant in the first case. In the second case the Moldovan Government was told to pay 1,500 Euros in non-pecuniary damages to the applicant and Moldovan authorities have to pay 4,000 Euros in non-pecuniary damages and 70 Euros in costs and expenses in the third case.

Republic of Moldova — CIS

President Vladimir Voronin has attended a summit of heads of state of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. At the summit, Moldova has signed with certain reservations a decision on CIS development concept and basic action plan on implementation of this concept. The interstate common action programme against crimes for 2008–10, the cooperation programme of CIS members against illicit trafficking in drugs for 2008–10, the cooperation programme of CIS members against terrorism and other violent and extremist manifestations for 2008–10 were also signed with reservations.

Also, Moldova undersigned a declaration on preparations for the 65^th anniversary of Victory in the World War II; a declaration of the Council of the International Association of Academies of Sciences and decisions on elaboration of cooperation proposals in the field of coordinated transportation policy of CIS member states.

Also, Moldova accepted the appointment of Sergey Lebedev as chairman of the Executive Committee, CIS executive secretary.

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