Today the OSCE Mission Office in Kishinev hosted a meeting between political representatives of Pridnestrovie and Moldova Nina Shtanski and Yevgeny Karpov.
During the meeting Nina Shtanski attracted attention of the “5+2” participants to the new unreasoned restriction measures of Moldova towards legal entities of Pridnestrovie. According to the Pridnestrovian side, one of the Pridnestrovian economic agents was refused by the Service of phytosanitary protection of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova a phytosanitary certificate of the RM for plum export and was required to submit additional, not provided by the legislation, evidence supporting the possibility of export of products grown.
Nina Shtanski noted that such actions of the Moldovan side are deprived of any legal prerequisites, as they not only violate the agreed format of the parties' interaction in the economic sphere, essentially limiting export opportunities of Pridnestrovie, but also contradict the law of the Republic of Moldova, as the requested certificate only confirms that the product meets the requirements and standards, and the list of the documents, necessary to obtain it, is enshrined in the relevant law and is comprehensive.
The Political Representative of Pridnestrovie addressed the Moldovan side with an official request for clarifications and asked to take all necessary measures to prevent similar situations in the future and ensure the unimpeded export of the Pridnestrovian agricultural products.
The discussion also touched upon the issues of freedom of movement. In particular, Political Representative of the Republic of Moldova Yevgeny Karpov expressed concern in connection with the Pridnestrovian adoption of a series of legal acts in the framework of the checkpoints modernization on the state border. Nina Shtanski, in her turn, informed the Moldovan colleagues that the ongoing activities in Pridnestrovie can in no way lead to the restriction of the freedom of movement for citizens and, on the contrary, are intended to simplify the border crossing procedure.
In the context of the specified subjects, Nina Shtanski expressed concern over the actions of the competent authorities of the Republic of Moldova, in particular in connection with the incidents of enhanced checking of Pridnestrovian citizens and officials at the airport of Kishinev. “We expressed our concern about the actions that the Moldovan side systematically implements, preventing the movement of Pridnestrovian officials across the Moldovan border.We have been assured that there is no policy point and that the control of the mentioned individuals was carried out selectively within the common practice of customs and border services. We were told that this is connected with the “difficult regional situation in the Republic of Moldova”. We expressed hope that the Moldovan side through the Political Representative has taken necessary actions that will avoid the inconvenience of movement for the representatives of Pridnestrovie. We received appropriate assurances from the Moldovan side,” said the diplomat.
