Moldova's and Pridnestrovie's chief negotiators meet in Chișinău

Yesterday, 19 September, the OSCE office hosted a regular meeting of Pridnestrovie's and Moldova's chief negotiators, Nina Shtanski and Eugen Carpov

During the meeting Nina Shtanski drew the 5+2 Talks participants' attention to new ungrounded restrictions imposed by Moldova on Pridnestrovie's business entities, the MFA press service reports.

According to the Pridnestrovian side, one of Pridnestrovie's economic agents was denied the phytosanitary certificate by Moldova's ministry of agriculture and food to export plums and made a demand to submit extra-statutory documents approving export of agricultural production.

Nina Shtanski noted such actions had no legal grounds as they do not only go counter to the agreed format of economic cooperation, restricting considerably Pridnestrovie's export potential, but also contradicts Moldova's legislation because the required certificate only proves product compliance with the requirements and norms, and the list of documents necessary to receive the certificate is stipulated in the corresponding law and thus exhaustive.

Pridnestrovie's chief negotiator officially requested the Moldovan side to provide a clarification on this issue and act with due diligence to prevent such cases in the future and ensure free export of Pridnestrovie's agricultural production.

In the course of the discussion freedom of movement issues were also touched upon. In particular, Moldova's chief negotiator, Eugen Carpov, expressed concern over Pridnestrovie's having adopted a number of regulatory legal acts aimed to modernise state border checkpoints.

According to Nina Shtanski, these measures cannot restrict citizens' freedom of movement in any way. On the contrary,  they are designed to facilitate border crossing.

To this end, Nina Shtanski voiced concern over  Moldovan authorities' activities, in particular, intensified  examination of Pridnestrovie's citizens and officials in Chișinău Airport.


"We have expressed concern over Moldova's regular actions impeding Pridnestrovian officials' movement across the Moldovan border. We have been assured there is no political background here, and examinations of the above mentioned persons were conducted on a selective basis as part of customs and border services' general practice. We have been explained it was connected with 'a difficult regional situation in Moldova'. We have expressed hope that Moldova in the person of its chief negotiator has taken necessary steps which will help to avoid movement restrictions for Pridnestrovians. We have been given the corresponding assurances," said the minister.