Opinions & Comments

Democracy and freedom are the values that make peoples lives better. The road to the EU covered by Poland was considered a successful one. Thats why we are ready to share our experience and are very glad when other states succeed in achieving better results than we,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in the EU și Moldova Forum that is taking place in Chisinau between March 29 and 31.

Political analyst Oazu Nantoi considers that the Transnistrian conflict is not an internal one and the population of Transnistria is not part of the dispute, while the Tiraspol administration, especially Igor Smirnov, do not represent this population. Related statements were made in the EU-Moldova Forum held in Chisinau. The analyst stressed that a viable solution to the conflict cannot be identified at the negotiating table with Igor Smirnov.

Former President of Romania Emil Constantinescu made disclosures about the Istanbul Summit of 1999, when Russia pledged to withdraw its troops and munitions from the Transnistrian region. In an international forum in Chisinau, the ex-head of state said the signing of that document by Russia was a present on his birthday by the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Coalition governance in a period of transition is inevitable, but any coalition should have a project, ex-President of Romania Emil Constantinescu said in the European Union și Moldova Forum that started in Chisinau on Tuesday evening, Info-Prim Neo reports. Emil Constantinescu took part in the first round of discussions themed Transition to democracy in Moldova: 20 years of independence”, alongside former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi.

Andrei Popov, Deputy minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; Anneli Ute Gabanyi, expert, Berlin

Experts at the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) maintain that a separate ministry should be created to oversee Moldova's European integration process alone.

With the appointment of Victor Osipov as Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Matters in September 2009, a change in the approach toward the settlement of the Transnistrian conflict has occurred and a series of successes have been attained in a quite short period of time, stated Radu Vrabie, program director of the Foreign Policy Association, at the launch of his survey titled The Transnistrian Issue and Moldova's European Integration: EU's Role”, Info-Prim Neo reports.

Ukrainian authorities hope that formal negotiations on the Transnistrian issue in the "5+2" format, stopped in 2006, will be resumed after the election of a new Parliament of Republic of Moldova. Until then, officials in Kiev encourage Chisinau and Tiraspol to continue with the small steps policy”. However, Ukrainian officials believe that the Moldovan-Ukrainian bilateral dialogue is sluggish because of Chisinau.

On June 28, 2010, after Acting President Mihai Ghimpu issued a decree, the Moldovan people could officially commemorate, for the first time, the occupation of Bessarabia by the Soviet troops on June 28, 1940. The commemoration of this tragic event in our history should have generated a moment of national unity. Regretfully, it rekindled the political and historical divisions/disagreements that have absorbed the energy of the society, the political class, for over 20 years.

Moldova has decidedly bet on an uncertain outcome of visa liberalisation with the EU. In diplomatic terms, Moldova is a few years behind Russia and Ukraine, which are already discussing the possibility of visa-free travel with the EU. But such diplomatic formalities are obscuring the fact that Moldova might actually be in the lead when it comes to implementing many of the necessary technical requirements.

The ambassadors issue has been the focus of attention during the last few weeks and this is explicable. Moldova has not had ambassadors in the capitals of a number of partner countries for over six months. Among these are Washington, Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Budapest, Prague, Stockholm, Sofia, Warsaw, Vienna, Vilnius, Beijing, Ankara, Kiev, Minsk, Baku, and Tel-Aviv. There hasn't been any ambassador in Bucharest for more than a year. Most of the ambassadors hold more than one position, working simultaneously in several states. Consequently, the number of partner states where Moldova is not represented by ambassadors is much higher.

A year ago, Moldova suffered Kyrgyzstan-style public disorder following contested elections, which ended with a new pro-EU government pushing a reform agenda taking power. Lenders and investors took note, and on March 24 the Moldova Partnership Forum brought together sponsors and investors at a major donor conference in Brussels.

FEW people have heard of Moldova—and when they have, it is usually for the wrong reasons. A frozen conflict with Russian-backed separatists in Transdniestria has hamstrung the country since 1992. A year ago a rigged election brought riots, followed by hundreds of arrests, scores of alleged beatings and rapes, and three deaths. The outrage led to a new election and the formation of a shaky pro-Western coalition government. Its youthful ministers are in sharp contrast to the greyness of the previous regime, nominally a Communist one but in fact crony-capitalist.

Prime Minister Vlad Filat at the opening session of the Moldova Partnership Forum in Brussels today.

Moldovan Prime Minister Vlad Filat has appeared before the Helsinki Commission, a U.S. agency that monitors human rights worldwide, during his first visit to Washington as premier.

The Summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) took place in Chisinau on October 9. This event, in the view of the former government, was to crown the victory of the Communists Party (PCRM) in this years parliamentary elections.

The "Big Daddy" of U.S. Democratic Party politics in the 1960s and '70s, Jesse Unruh, had a wonderfully ribald saying about the role of money and influence in the business of government: "If you can't drink a lobbyist's whiskey, take his money, sleep with his women, and still vote against him in the morning, you don't belong in politics."

Experts say that the financial aid promised by Moscow to the authorities from Chisinau will allow filling in the gaps in the budget during the election campaign, but it will not solve the structural difficulties of Moldovan authorities and, additionally, Moscow pursues one goal și to drive Chisinau apart from the European project.

On May 27 this year, at the regional reunion of Russian ethnics from Ukraine, Moldova and Belorusia Valeri Kuzmin declared that in regard to raising the Russian language at the level of state language” in the Republic of Moldova „no positive dynamics has been noticed lately” and that the problem deserves an enhanced attention”. As stated by the Ambassador, in the period of aggravation of internal political situation which took place immediately after the elections, a sharpening of interethnic relations has also been noticed.