Activity of the President on November 3–16, 2003

113th session of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers

On November 6, the 113th session of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers was convened in Chisinau. Republic of Moldova handed over the chairmanship of the Ministerial Committee to Netherlands. The event gathered representative of 20 European states, of all the Council of Europe member states, as well as of the observer-countries.

A day before the reunion, the President met a series of officials, namely Walter Schwimmer, Council between Europe Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Chairman-in-Office of OSCE and Dutch Foreign Minister, and Brian Cowen, Irish Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Moldova was praised for its chairmanship of the Council of Europe Ministerial Council at the meeting of President Voronin and Walter Schwimmer. The Two reviewed Moldova’s chairmanship and considered such issues as illegal migration and Transdnistrian conflict resolution.

Given that Jaap de Hoop Scheffer currently holds the position of Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, which is one of the three mediators in the Transdnistrian conflict — the discussions between him and President Voronin centred on “Transdnistrian dossier”. On this occasion, Dutch Foreign Minister expressed his hope that the conflict would be settled by the end of 2004, thus indicating that the resolution might be speeded up, especially during the second half of the year, when Netherlands would hold the chairmanship of the European Union.

In his turn, Brian Cowen expressed Ireland’s commitment to support Republic of Moldova’s efforts to joint EU and reintegrate the country. He also stated that his country shared the same views on ways of Transdnistrian conflict resolution as OSCE.

In his opening speech at the Council of Europe Ministerial Committee, President Voronin stated that “Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Ministerial Committee was a historic event for our country, which has had a positive impact not only on our bilateral relations, but also domestically, thereby boosting a progress in democratic reforms. At the same time, we hope that the actions we undertook during our mandate have resulted in experiences and outcomes useful both for our entire organization, as well as for each member state, which is a good illustration to the unity through diversity principle”. The President also indicated that “our fruitful cooperation with the Council of Europe is a strong incentive to set new goals, in particular the strategic objective of joining EU”. This desire “stems not only from the fact that Moldova is geographically a part of Europe, but also from the fact that we have the same roots and traditions, we share the same European values, which include observing human rights, pluralist democracy, rule of law and diversity, in its multiple manifestation”.

As expected, President Voronin once again reiterated that for the Republic of Moldova “acceding to European Union and to European standards is the only way to integrate the society, to unify the country and settle the Transdnistrian conflict”.

Fighting corruption

On November 7, President Voronin signed a decree on the establishment of a new commission, which is to draft and submit for Parliament’s approval the National Strategy on Fighting Corruption, as well as an action plan for its implementation. The initiative is part of a string of measures aimed at fighting corruption announced as a top priority once President Voronin took the office in 2001. Noteworthy, almost two years afterwards, Moldova is among the most corrupted countries in Europe according to the findings of Transparency International. The latest report reads “President of the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, is viewed as a fighter against corruption, however his efforts are rather targeted at gaining more votes than at identifying solutions to the problem” ^[1]. One thing is for sure, this complex phenomenon having negative repercussions would not be solved upon the adoption of a National Strategy unless backed up by a strong political will.

Recommendations for public officers

On November 8, President Voronin attended the reunion of mayors, heads of rayons and rayon council secretaries. The President recommended local authorities to include water and gas supply of localities among the top priorities of their activity. Given the wide-range political representation of the elected officials, President Voronin suggested them “to forget about party affiliation and political differences, as the only goal of their activity is to serve their community”.

President Voronin’s visit to Cyprus

Last week, Vladimir Voronin paid an official visit to the Republic of Cyprus. According to the press service, during his meeting with Demetris Christofias Chair of the Cypriot Parliament, President Voronin was quite interested in Cypriot experience in settling a long-lasting a territorial dispute, which might be quite useful for Moldovan authorities in their efforts to settle the Transdnistrian conflict. As usual, President Voronin asked for Cyprus’ support in Republic of Moldova’s aspiration to join the stabilisation and association process.

Ukraine

Another major event of the aforesaid period was the official visit of Ukrainian President Leonid Kucima to Chisinau. During his meeting with President Voronin, the Two followed on the issue of joint customs posts at the border and reached a consensus on the functioning of five joint posts and two to be opened. Another issue considered during the meeting was Transdnistrian conflict. In this respect, President Voronin stated at the briefing hosted at the end of the meeting, that Kiev fully supported Chisinau’s position on settling Transdnistrian conflict.

After the meeting the Two signed a joint declaration to be followed by a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.

On this occasion, President Vladimir Voronin conferred “Order of the Republic” to his Ukrainian counterpart as a “profound gratitude for his merits in fostering partnership and co-operation between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova”. During the ceremony, Moldovan President referred to the “Ukraine’s and President Kucima’s personal contribution to the resolution of the Transdnistrian conflict, as well as his support in reunifying our country”.

↑ BASA-press, Chisinau, January 28, 2003

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