Foreign Affairs on February 15–28, 2011

European Integration

Negotiations on the EU — Moldova Association Agreement in Brussels

The EU — Moldova Political Dialogue meeting of the Political and Security Committee (PSC) and the 5th round of negotiations of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the European Union were held in Brussels in the second half of February.

According to Foreign Affairs Ministry press releaseRO, at the meetings Moldovan delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister, Natalia Gherman, informed the officials of the European Commission about actions taken by Moldovan authorities to carry out the Action Plan for liberalization of visa regime, presenting also the National Programme for implementing the Action Plan on visa liberalization, adopted by the Government on 17 February 2011.The meetings also tackled the issues related to the political situation in Moldova and its impact on the evolution of reforms, as well as the issue of Transnistrian conflict settlement. During negotiations on the Association Agreement, the delegations discussed the Preamble, objectives and principles of the Agreement, as well as several articles of the chapter on general and final institutional provisions. According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the following chapters were closed: on regional stability, political dialogue, cooperation in foreign and security policy, economic and financial cooperation. The discussions on cooperation in the field of environment, transport, taxation and public administration reform will continue. The next round of negotiations on the Association Agreement will be held in Chisinau, in the second half of April 2011.

The European Union will continue to provide financial assistance to the Republic of Moldova

In a press conference, Dirk Schuebel, Head of EU Delegation in Chisinau, said that Moldova will benefit of financial assistance from the European Union amounted to 550 million. euro in the period 2011–2013. Assistance will be targeted at projects in energy efficiency and renewable resources, to reformation of judiciary, acquisition of equipment to improve border control and biometric passports. 15% of EU assistance will be channeled towards projects in Transnistrian region. Dirk Schuebel confirmed that Moldova receives from EU the highest aid per capita aid (about 25 euros), except for Palestine, which has a separate budget.

Bilateral cooperation

Moldova — Russia

On February 21, Russian Ambassador to Moldova, Valery Kuzmin, gave a public lecture at the International University of Moldova, where he reported on the current priorities of Russian foreign policyRU. The priority directions of Russian foreign policy include, inter alia, strengthening the multilateral cooperation within the CIS states. According to the ambassador, last year Russia has strengthened its partnership with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In contrast, relations with Moldova have decreased in intensity, due to political instability in Moldova. So far Russia has not received any answer from Chisinau on the draft European Security Treaty (also called Helsinki 2), proposed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009. However, Russia continues to ensure the energy security of Moldova by exporting its gas and electricity, and also representing one of the main sale markets for Moldovan wine. Russian ambassador assured that Russia has not conducted and doesn’t have any plans to conduct any “wine wars” and to introduce embargo on Moldovan wine products.

Speaking about Russia’s commitments made at the OSCE summit in Istanbul to withdraw its troops and munitions from Transnistria by the end of 2002, Vladimir Kuzmin stressed that Russia has fulfilled its commitments. The only outstanding commitment is the withdrawal of weapons from storages in Colbasna. According to the ambassador, this was impossible because of the political dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol has terminated in 2003. Russia could have not opposed the decision of Tiraspol to prevent the evacuation of weapons.

A few days before the lecture given by Russian ambassador, the Head of Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, has re-raised the issue of the quality of Moldovan winesRU. According to the Head of Rospotrebnadzor, they continue to worsen, showing unseriousness of the governance in Chisinau. Despite this situation, Russia doe not plan to introduce an embargo on Moldovan wine products.

Note by ADEPT: Political dialogue between Chisinau and the separatist Transnistrian region ceased after the Moldovan leadership has refused to sign the Kozak Memorandum, proposed by the Russian Federation. The Kozak Memorandum provides for the establishment of an asymmetric federation and the extension of Russian troops’ deployment in Moldova for additional 20 years.

Moldova — Ukraine

Chairman of the European Integration Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Boris Tarasyuk, made some tough statementsRU against the Moldovan authorities, saying that inactions of Moldovan authorities prevent resolving the problems of bilateral relations. In opinion of Ukrainian MP, Ukraine has fulfilled all the commitments taken before Moldova, while Moldova has delayed the problem resolution due to electoral reasons.

Multilateral cooperation

Republic of Moldova took over the GUAM Chairmanship

On 24 February, during the meeting of the Council of foreign ministers of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, the Republic of Moldova took over the GUAM Chairmanship for one year. Priorities of Moldovan chairmanship for 2011 will focus on increasing cooperation in such areas as energy, transport, tourism, in emergency situations. Another priority will be raising the visibility of GUAM on international arena.

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