Today, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR hosted the meeting of the Deputy Chairperson of the Government for International Cooperation of the PMR, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nina Shtanski with the OSCE delegation headed by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Astrid Thors. The members to delegation were also the Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Jennifer Brush, Senior Adviser of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Jacqueline Carpenter, Senior Advisers to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Bob Dean and Vincent de Graaf. Pridnestrovian side was represented also by the Minister of Education of the PMR Svetlana Fadeyeva and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vitaly Ignatiev.
During the meeting the sides discussed a number of relevant aspects of the Moldovan- Pridnestrovian relations in education. Interlocutors touched upon issues relating to functioning of Latin script schools in Pridnestrovie, in particular issues of taxation and rent paid by these schools.
While discussing taxation of the so-called “Romanian schools”, Pridnestrovian side proposed to develop a mechanism intended to avoid double taxation for teachers in these schools because today they are taxpayers in Moldova though they reside and work in Pridnestrovie. “People who live and work in such schools located in Bendery and other Pridnestrovian places differ in no way from teachers working in neighbour schools and paying taxes properly,” Nina Shtanski commented on necessity to launch such a mechanism. “There are no states where people do not pay taxes using transport and road facilities subsidized by the authorities,” emphasized the diplomat.
Parties touched also upon rent paid by Romanian schools. According to Astrid Thors, assessment of international experts, which was presented to her, describes aggravation of the situation in this sphere because of alleged rent increase. The Minister of Education of the PMR Svetlana Fadeyeva objected the assessment of international experts. In particular, she mentioned a school in Rybnitsa which is under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Moldova and rents premises by private entity. Moldovan theoretic lyceum in Bendery had paid rent until 2003 but because of renovation carried out in the building it was agreed that this institution would be free of the rent for 10 years. In 2013 the agreement expired, and rent payment should be resumed as it had been before 2003. This mechanism is fully relevant to the Moldovan lyceum in Tiraspol. Thus, Svetlana Fadeyeva pointed to the unreasonable of the accusation by Moldovan side and incorrect lopsided information of international representatives.
After the meeting, Nina Shtanski commented on current difficulties relating to nostrification of Pridnestrovian education certificates. The diplomat stressed, in particular, that this issue remains topical despite of some positive changes. “During the meeting, we asked our guest to draw attention to the problem with the legalization of Pridnestrovian documents in the Republic of Moldova. Indeed, the problem was solved partially, but the Minister of Education Svetlana Fadeyeva fairly called the measures taken by the Republic of Moldova as “half-step”, since the only result achieved is that Pridnestrovian diplomas are no longer subject to withdrawal. This, however, does not solve the problems of those people who live and work in other countries with Pridnestrovian documents. They have to authorize their documents in Moldova in order to be employed in the specialty. Today, this procedure can not be implemented, since it is almost impossible to meet all requirements of Moldovan side, and people find themselves in a deadlock,” the diplomat explained.
“Earlier, Pridnestrovian side proposed a simplified procedure for legalization, but, unfortunately, we were not particularly able to make a step forward in this direction. Nevertheless, we hope that Moldovan side will take a step towards and we will begin a constructive and substantive dialogue. Today, we sought assistance of our international guests concerning their contribution in order to enhance the dialogue in this direction,” the Head of the Foreign Ministry summarized.
