A videoconference format discussion of Expert (Working) Groups on Transport took place.
During the meeting, the parties analyzed the current situation in the field of international passenger transportation. The sides made a decision to improve coordination and clarify aspects related to runs’ (carried out by PMR transport companies) cancellation or redistribution between the territories of Pridnestrovie and Moldova.
At the same time, Pridnestrovian representatives stressed out that Moldova continues avoiding to consider the draft Protocol Decision (that the Pridnestrovian side presented earlier) on Pridnestrovian transport carriers’ admission to the VRO. This leads to undoing traditional routes to Russia and Ukraine that had existed for many years.
To implement the social and commercial functions of services for passengers’ transportation, Pridnestrovie again called for the Moldovan side to fulfill its earlier obligations and to agree on the mechanisms for admitting Pridnestrovian buses to registration within VRO.
Dialogue’s key focus was on possible ways to improve the VRO’s effectiveness. In particular, the Pridnestrovian side outlined aspects related to the use of driving licenses such as: the impossibility to register vehicles older than ten years within VRO (imported after signing the April 24, 2018 Protocol Decision); Moldovan side’s refusal to issue the RT form in the VRO; the impossibility to re-equip vehicles with neutral license plates and a dozen more technical issues to be resolved.
The current meeting has demonstrated Moldovan side’s lack of practical readiness to move towards resolving the above-mentioned problems even within clearly expressed international assistance. In this regard, Pridnestrovian representatives separately drew the attention of participants in the negotiation process to the inadmissibility and groundlessness of any restrictive measures or corresponding unfair campaigning against the owners of vehicles registered in Pridnestrovie. The Pridnestrovian side considers the growing population’s interest in the VRO mechanism to be directly related to the efficiency increase of their activities through the settlement of existing problems recognized by mediators.
