The Pridnestrovian side has not disregarded unreliable information of EUBAM about the economic situation in the republic
Today, Deputy Prime Minister of the PMR for International Cooperation, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nina Shtanski had a meeting with Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola and Head of EUBAM Andrew Tesoriere at the PMR's MFA.
During the meeting, Pirkka Tapiola introduced a new head of EUBAM to the Pridnestrovian side (Andrew Tesoriere was appointed on August 14, and today he has visited Pridnestrovie for the first time), and expressed the hope that the new leader will be able to establish more intensive cooperation with Pridnestrovie. “Mr. Tesoriere has a number of ideas and proposals of how to strengthen the Mission's contacts with the representatives of Pridnestrovie. We want to work with you efficiently and transparently, and if we had a misunderstanding in certain areas until now, more intensive cooperation will help us to forge relations at the present moment”, - said the European diplomat. Andrew Tesoriere, in his turn, confirmed the readiness to seek ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between EUBAM and Pridnestrovie, also noting that at this stage it is important to “just look into each other's eyes and know each other better."
Welcoming the European counterparts, Nina Shtanski drew attention to the fact that Pridnestrovie quite highly appreciated the statements of the head of EUBAM, made immediately after the appointment. We remind that the European diplomat in a corresponding press release of EUBAM said that “he would like to make a positive contribution to the development of solutions that will be able to strengthen regional cooperation, including the economic prosperity of Pridnestrovie”.
“Pridnestrovie has interpreted your statement as a special signal that you want to understand the causes and the crux of economic problems and engage in resolving them,” - said in this regard the head of the Pridnestrovian diplomacy. Along with this, Nina Shtanski also stated that the misunderstanding between EUBAM and the Pridnestrovian side still exists, but an attempt to establish closer cooperation with the Mission under the previous leadership “ended in failure”.
In this context, the minister drew attention that on 24 August Prdnestrovie informed EUBAM about the attempt of a number of representatives of the Mission to mislead the diplomatic corps accredited in Moldova on the dynamics of foreign trade activities carried out by Pridnestrovie.
“I'm not sure you know, but one of the representatives of the Mission sent a special report to all embassies in which information on export and import of Pridnestrovie contained totally false data more than half. We do not understand this approach. The Ministry of Economic Development and the State Customs Committee conducted a thorough analysis of those documents, studied the sources which the Mission based upon. Unfortunately, they were mostly the media, not the official sites of departments - so our specialists are inclined to believe that there has been a careless and irresponsible attempt committed intentionally aimed to distort the real picture,”- said Nina Shtanski.
We remind that on August 27, 2015 the Ministry of Economic Development of the PMR spread on its official site a statement regarding the facts that the situation in the sphere of foreign economic activity of Pridnestrovie was not set out objectively by the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine. The press service of the ministry noted that the content of the information summary prepared by the experts of the Mission had obvious signs of tendentious and unconscientious approach, damaging the professional credibility of the Mission. In particular, figures for July 2015 cited by EUBAM experts were presented solely to economic agents registered in Moldova and carried out foreign trade operations through the customs authorities of the Republic of Moldova. At the same time indicators of the Pridnestrovian trade with the Republic of Moldova are excluded from the statistics, as well as, in some cases, indicators of trade with Ukraine,”- the statement said.
During the discussion of the issue raised by the Pridnestrovian side the interlocutors agreed on the need for a special meeting between representatives of the EUBAM and Pridnestrovie to clarify the existing differences and avoid such distortions of data in the future.
During the meeting, the Pridnestrovian side also raised the problems of new restrictions on freedom of movement, unilaterally imposed by the Republic of Moldova, namely the prohibition of the Border Police of the Republic of Moldova on the entry and exit from the territory of Moldova to Ukraine for vehicles registered in Pridnestrovie. The foreign minister called on the European side through the head of EU Delegation to Moldova as quickly as possible to involve in the resolution of the matter in view of its highly sensitive nature for the socio-economic well-being of Pridnestrovians.
