Foreign Affairs on May 1–16, 2008

European Integration

Launch of the Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF)

On May 6, 2008, in Brussels was launched the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF)- a new tool for strengthening the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) through the partnership among the European Commission, EU member states, ENP partner states and European Public Financial Institutions (EBRD, European Investment Bank). NIF will provide financial support in the form of grants to ease the lending operations of European Public Finance Institutions for carrying out the infrastructure projects in energy, environment and transport in the entire ENP area. NIF will also provide support for SMEs development and to social sector projects. The European Commission has already allocated to the NIF 100 million euro out of the 700 million euro planned for the period 2007–2013. According to recent estimations, NIF will generate up to 5–6 billion euro. NIF will be focused on countries that have Action Plans in the ENP framework: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Jordan, Lebanon, Moldova, Morocco, the occupied Palestinian territory, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Bilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Romania

Moldovan-Romanian relations have been focused on overcoming the dissensions on signing the Convention on small cross-border traffic between Moldova and Romania.

The first step in this regard was made on May 6, 2008, in Strasbourg during a meeting between Andrei Stratan, Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, and Dana Raduta Matache, State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania. Although the information on the meeting’s outcome provided by the MFAEI press centre was meagre, on May 13, MFAEI announced in a statement that Moldova will resume the negotiations with Romania on the Moldovan-Romanian State Border Treaty and the Convention on small cross-border traffic.

Also, in the same statementRO, MFAEI proposes Romania to include the entire territory of Moldova (including Transnistria) in the sphere of action of the Convention on small cross-border traffic, and insists, again, on simultaneous signing of the Convention on small cross-border traffic and the Moldovan-Romanian State Border Treaty, if “Romania […] does not have any territorial or other claims over the Republic of Moldova”.

The announced negotiations took place on May 14–15, 2008 in Bucharest. A press release circulated by the Romanian MFA indicates that during negotiations the experts from Moldova and Romania have presented their arguments and positions on the Moldova-Romanian State Border Treaty and the Framework Agreement on Strategic Partnership for Europe between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Republic of Moldova, but not on the Convention on small cross-border traffic that was not discussed. The press release does not present any information about the negotiations’ outcome, but specifies that the negotiations will continue, but already in Chisinau.

At the same time, the Romanian MFA declares that “there is no technical and legal conditionality between signing the Convention on small cross-border traffic and the Border Regime Treaty”, since these treaties regulate different fields: the Convention on small cross-border traffic covers the simplified movement of inhabitants of the two countries residing in the neighbourhood of the common border, when the state border treaty regulates the technical aspects of the border.

Note by ADEPT. On May 11, 2008 Liberal-Democratic Party of Moldova and Our Moldova Alliance organized several meetings with the population of districts situated along the Prut, during which the signatures in support of signing the Convention on small cross-border traffic were collected. Other opposition parties — Social-Political Movement “European Action”, Democratic Party of Moldova, Social Democratic Party — has also launched declarations of support for the signature of the Convention on small cross-border traffic.

Republic of Moldova — Japan

On May 14, 2008, the Governments of Moldova and Japan, represented by Igor Dodon, First Deputy Prime-minister and Minister of Economy and Trade, and Mutsuo Mabuchi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to the Republic of Moldova, signed an Agreement on Technical Cooperation. The agreement aims to strengthen the technical cooperation between Moldova and Japan and stipulates the dispatch of Japanese experts to Moldova and the provision of technical and training assistance. Igor Dodon stressed that Japan is one of the main development partners of the Republic of Moldova due to the assistance provided to Moldova during the past years. Thus, until now, Japan has provided technical assistance to Moldova worth 67 million US dollars as grants and 48.2 million US dollars as loans, and 151 Moldovan officials visited Japan to take note of Japanese experience in various economic and social sectors. Another 20 Moldovan specialists will visit Japan in 2008.

Republic of Moldova — Turkey

The new Ambassador of Turkey to the Republic of Moldova, Ahmet Ferit Ulker, has presented the copies of his letters of accreditation to Andrei Stratan, Deputy Prime-minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.

Republic of Moldova — Czech Republic

In the period May 12–13, 2008, in Prague took place a meeting for establishing the Joint Czech-Moldovan Commission for economical, industrial and technical-scientifical cooperation. The Moldovan delegation was headed by Tudor Copaci, Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade, and the Czech delegation — by Milan Hovorka, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade. During the meeting the Regulations of the Joint Commission were approved and the Commission working bodies were established. In addition, was considered the existing framework of Moldovan-Czech cooperation, and analysed the prospects of future cooperation, especially in energy, road and rail transport infrastructure and agro-industrial fields.

Multilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova — Council of Europe (CoE)

On May 6–7, 2008 Andrei Stratan, Deputy Prime-minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration participated in the 118^th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, held in Strasbourg. In Strasbourg Andrei Stratan met with Terry Davis, CoE Secretary General, Gunter Gloser, State Minister for European Affairs of the German MFA, and Raduta Dana Matache, State Secretary of the Romanian MFA.

At the session, Andrei Stratan delivered a speech that addressed several sensitive subjects for Moldova, such as European integration and settlement of the Transnistrian problem. In particular, Andrei Stratan reiterated the desire of the Republic of Moldova to move towards gradual European integration, including by signing a new legal framework with the EU that will give Moldova access to the four EU freedoms. With regard to Transnistrian problem, the Moldovan official gave assurances that the Republic of Moldova will continue to identify a solution to the Transnistrian problem within the “5+2” negotiations’ format that will respect its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity. At the end of session, Sweden took over the six-month Chairmanship of the CoE’s Committee of Ministers from Slovakia.

Republic of Moldova — GUAM

On May 13, 2008 Chisinau held the 10th meeting of the Council of National Coordinators of the Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM, with participation of Deputy Foreign Ministers of the GUAM Member States and the GUAM Secretary General. At the meeting, were addressed several topics linked to the GUAM activity and organizational development, including: extending the partnership with the USA, EU, Council of Europe and other international partners, and finalizing the draft Protocol to the Agreement on creation of GUAM Virtual Center for combating terrorism, organised crime, illicit drug trafficking and other types of crimes and the draft Agreement on protecting intellectual property.

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