The Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting of the PMR Foreign Minister Vitaly Ignatiev with the delegation of the European Union, headed by the representative within the 5+2 negotiation process, Dorota Dlouchy-Suliga. The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova, Janis Mazeiks, also attended the meeting.
The agenda included issues of the trade and economic interaction in the context of several unjustified restrictions applied by the Moldovan side, as well as the current situation in the negotiation process.
In particular, the Minister informed about the charging of fees for customs clearance of export-import of the Pridnestrovian economic operators starting from 10 August this year and Moldova’s intention to charge Pridnestrovian enterprises for environmental pollution, which contradicts the existing agreements of the negotiation process signed in 2014 with the EU mediation.
Regarding the pollution charge, the diplomat said that all the enterprises of the republic make the relevant payments to the Pridnestrovian budget, and the necessary environmental measures are implemented with these funds. At the same time, he noted the inadmissible situation of double taxation in this area.
In addition, Vitaly Ignatiev drew attention to the issues of importing vehicles to the PMR, Italian digital X-ray machine, and the lack of cooperation in the banking sector. He claimed that the Moldovan restrictive measures, including the blockade of industrial enterprises’ exports, have a negative impact on Pridnestrovie’s foreign economic activity, also reducing the trade turnover with the European Union. He stressed that the current bilateral trade interaction is based on the agreements of the negotiation process and the mechanism of mutual trade facilitation agreed in 2015. However, these basic agreements are currently being violated by Chisinau, including under the guise of arguments about Moldova’s European integration.
The head of the PMR Foreign Ministry expressed interest in a more active position of Brussels, as well as in the resumption of an intensive dialogue, including with the European Commission Directorate-General Trade (DG TRADE) on trade and economic cooperation, which would allow defining the interaction parameters in new circumstances and aimed at avoiding costs and humanitarian crises.
As for the negotiation process, attention was paid to Pridnestrovie’s initiative on relaunching the full-fledged VRO operation. At the same time, the Minister expressed his negative attitude towards the refusal of the Moldovan side to hold a number of meetings of expert (working) groups initiated by Pridnestrovie, i.e. on the issues of economy, transport, ecology and banking cooperation. In this context, the EU representative expressed her opinion on the importance of maintaining a systemic dialogue between Pridnestrovie and Moldova in order to find solutions to pressing issues and to exclude any negative aspects for the population and economic operators of the parties.
