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Transnistrian Conflict on March 19 – April 1, 2007

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Consultations of the mediators and observers in Vienna

On 21 March in Vienna took place a new round of consultations of the mediators on behalf of the OSCE, Russian Federation and Ukraine, and the observers on behalf of the EU and US, with the participation of the OSCE Chairman in Office, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Miguel Anhel Moratinos. The consultations concluded with the signature of a final statement in which representatives of the mediators and observers have called for the resumption of the negotiations in the “5+2” format as soon as possible. According tot the statement, both the mediators and the observers are concerned with the lack of dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol. At the same time, the signatories expressed their readiness to organise in the nearest future a joint meeting with the political representatives of the two sides.

We would like to remind that the negotiations round scheduled for 15–16 February 2007 did not take place because of “lack of consensus between participants”, and that meetings in this format have ceased to be organised since February 2006. It is worth noting that during the first trip to Moldova of the new EU Special Representative for Moldova Kalman Mizsei he met with the Transnistrian leader Igor Smirnov who expressed his availability to resume the dialogue with the Moldovan authorities.

European commercial preferences for Transnistrian economic agents

On 17 March the Government of the Republic of Moldova adopted a series of amendments to the procedure of issuing certificates of origin to economic agents from the Transnistrian region. According to the amendments, the Transnistrian economic agents registered permanently or temporarily with the Moldovan State Registration Chamber will be granted certificates of origin of type “C”, “A”, “CT-1” and “EUR”, which will allow them to enjoy the same commercial preferences granted by the EU to Moldovan economic agents. According to an information note of the Ministry of Reintegration, “the proposed amendments are part of the measures taken by the Ministry of Economy and Trade with a view to obtaining the Autonomous Commercial Preferences from the EU and are to contribute to the process of socio-economic reintegration of Moldova”. According to the Ministry of Reintegration, at present 290 economic agents from Transnistria are registered with the Moldovan authorities: 124 on a permanent basis and 166 on a temporary basis. Among the Transnistrian economic agents registered permanently in Chisinau are the shoe factory “Tighina”, textiles factories “Tirotex”, “Vestra”, “Intertentr-lux” etc. Temporary registration has been granted to the Ribnita Metallurgical Plant, Ribnita Cement Factory, “Moldavcabel” Factory, Electrical Power Station from Kuciurgan, Wine Factory “Buchet Moldavii” etc. In January 2007 the Moldovan Trade and Industry Chamber issued to Transnistrian economic agents 574 of certificates of origin, including 74 preferential ones (“T-1–63”, “EUR-11”).

International Conference on Transnistrian Conflict

On 26–27 March in Chisinau took place the International Conference “Settling the Transnistrian Conflict in the Context of Moldova’s Europenisation”, organised by the Foreign Policy Association with the support of the PBF Project and the British Embassy Chisinau. The conference was attended by a series of Moldovan high level officials, representatives of EU institutions, OSCE, heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Moldova as well as renown experts from the EU, Ukraine, Russia, Romania, US and Moldova.

In his welcoming address to the conference participants, Chairman of the Parliament of Moldova, Marian Lupu, said that the last EU enlargement round has placed Moldova in a new regional context, the Transnistrian conflict being a source of instability for the whole European security system. Speaker Lupu welcomed the participation of EU as observer in the “5+2” format and the signature of teh EU-Moldova Action Plan as prerequisites for a viable partnership with a view to the Transnistrian settlement.

Lupu reiterated Chisinau’s position on the Transnistrian issue, founded on the principle of territorial integrity and non-violability of the borders. “The democratisation and demilitarisation of the region remain our stated priorities as the adopted approach to Transnistrian settlement”, Speaker Lupu stated. He proposed a series of measures to attain these objectives: launch of an OSCE Mission to evaluate the situation of democratic institutions and inspect the military sites in Transnistria; honouring of Russia’s commitments assumed at the Istanbul OSCE Summit in 1999; transformation of the current peacekeeping operation into an international one to include military and civilian observers with international mandate; opening in Bender an EU Information Centre by the model of the centres in Chisinau, Balti and Cahul; strengthening of the civil society and supporting civic initiatives aimed at the democratisation of the region.

The EU representatives, including the Head of the EC Delegation to Moldova, Cesare de Montes, Head of the European Parliament Commission for cooperation with Moldova, Marianne Mikko, and the Senior Advisor for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova in the Policy Unit of the Secretariat of the European Council, Pirkka Tapiola, strengthened the need to increase the attractiveness of Moldova for the citizens from the left bank of Nistru River by steeping up the European integration efforts and the democratic reform process. Pirkka Tapiola stated that the European Union will continue its efforts to identify a final and comprehensive solution to the Transnistrian conflict. The key principle of the settlement will be the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova, and the European Union will not give up on this principle. According to the European official, “the final settlement model will not involve necessarily the status of autonomy, federal or confederal subject for Transnistria, key attention should be given to the delimitation of competences between Chisinau and Tiraspol”. At the same time, any solution should be a viable one, and contribute to the European integration of Moldova and a life in dignity for people on both sides of River Nistru. Marianne Mikko in her turn expressed concern at the frequent violations of the freedom of the media registered lately in Moldova and the lack of sound civil society institutions. “Chisinau should understand that the process of Europenisation is not only about nice words, it’s also about passing laws, applying them, and imp0lementing the democratic reforms”, stated MEP Marianne Mikko.

February 17 – March 4, 2007 April 2–15, 2007