Activity of the President on February 14 – March 6, 2005

Sessions of the Ministries

Ministry of Education

President Vladimir Voronin attended the session of the Ministry of Education. In his speech Mr. President pointed that obligatory primary education and jobs for fresh graduates should be high on the Ministry agenda. President also referred to the need of tailoring admission quotas to market demand.

In a related note, Mr. Voronin stated that the notion of “patriotism” should be the cornerstone of the RM educational system. According to the President “In all the years since independence there was no patriotic education. After 16 years of political battles, we had ended up with 2% of population being Romanians according to the recent census. And those 2% were registered as Romanians only because of the students involved in questioning, who were appointed by different political parties, or due to the fact that old people knew nothing of what had they signed for”.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The President also attended the annual session of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he reviewed the foreign policy for 2004 and set the goals for 2005.

Among the achievements President cited the EU-RM Action Plan, which opened a new stage in Moldova’s foreign policy. Reiterating the strategic goal of accession to EU, Vladimir Voronin pointed that Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to coordinated and monitor actions undertaken in this respect and that it should turn into “a projecting institute providing other governmental structures models of restructuring the country according to European standards”.

In view of enforcing the Action Plan in due time “or before the schedule”, President endorsed the idea of establishing a parliamentary commission entrusted to deal with EU accession.

Vladimir Voronin concluded that “reintegration of the country in line with international norms, that is abolishing secessionist regime, non-conditional withdrawal of Russian troops, securing Moldovan-Ukrainian borders should become along with accession to EU a top priority for our diplomacy”.

Initiative

As a follow-up to the decree setting 2005 the year of local self-governing, President Voronin came up with the initiative of establishing a Ministry of Local Government. According to the President “such a ministry is necessary in order to coordinate the efforts undertaken by central and local government aimed at modernizing the country, /…/ in order to implement the wide-scale project Moldovan village that requires a single coordination centre for the transformations”.

In this respect, President expressed his regret that “nowadays it is the Government Apparatus, Ministry of Justice, Parliament and many other structures are dealing with local government, which in the end creates confusion and a total lack of coordination”.

President stated that such a ministry “would bolster consolidation of local democracy, would promote a consistent policy oriented towards raising standards in local government, adoption of European standards and approaches in relations between local government and other branches of central government”.

Trip to Kiev

On March 1, Vladimir Voronin flew to Kiev to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Iushcenko. During the visit the Two signed a joint declaration on Moldovan-Ukrainian cooperation, document specifying the similarity of the strategic goals of the two countries as regards accession to EU, promoting democratic reforms and market economy. The two parties undertook to bolster trade by bringing the legal framework in line with EU norms: free movement of people and free circulation of goods, capital and services.

In a related note, the parties pledged to cooperate on border control, fighting smuggling, illegal movement of people and smuggling of munitions and drugs.

The declaration reads that Republic of Moldova undertook to ratify in the first quarter of 2005 Provisory Regulation on the GUUAM Informational Bureau of July 20, 2002 and Agreement on setting up a Free Economic Zone between the GUUAM (an organisation created by Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) countries of July 20, 2002. Ukraine also undertook to ratify the Agreement in the first quarter of 2005. The document also reads that both RM and Ukraine saluted EU and US involvement as an observer in settlement of Transdniestrian conflict.

Meeting with Georgian President

Immediately after meeting Ukrainian President, on March 2 President Voronin met his Georgian counterpart, Mihail Saakashvili.

Analysts claim the two meetings on the eve of elections were not a coincidence, rather it was an attempt to show international community that President Voronin was on good terms with the pioneers of orange revolution in Ukraine and Georgia. The move was to boost the rating of the Communist President and on the other hand to dissociate orange revolution from the Moldovan opposition and thwart any “revolutionary” moves in Moldova.

Two documents were signed during the visit on the “Supremacy of Democratic Values” and Declaration on the “Black Holes” in Europe. The former reaffirms the two countries’ commitment to democratic values, including free and fair elections. It reads “No outside force should be allowed to impose its will on the people, no one should be allowed to influence the outcome of the elections and try to change the political course of the country through economic blackmail and all kinds of illegal operations.” The document goes on to revitalizing GUUAM and turning it into a promoter of democracy, stability and security in the entire region.

The document also reads “We trust that the new government of Moldova will come to power as a result of free and fair elections, not through external threats of economic sanctions and the attempts of corrupt clans to return to power with support from yesterday’s masters.”

The “Declaration on the «Black Holes» in Europe” reiterates both countries’ interest to eliminate “threats to international peace and security stemming from armed separatism” and “resolving the externally inspired protracted conflicts in both our countries.” The document goes on “the speedy removal of the Russian forces represents the common interest of our countries and that of the entire region”.

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