The Foreign Ministry of the PMR took with attention not only the request of the REGNUM News Agency, but also the information previously published on the agency's website with a heading “Tiraspol has changed the national idea: instead of “Eurasian” – “European integration”. We remind that in that material of April 4, 2015 the REGNUM correspondents came to that conclusion by analyzing the information of the press service of the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Moldova in which the REGNUM news agency allegedly reported that an agreement to create a “working group at the level of government institutions in order to develop a strategic document to enact the Agreement on the Association and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area of Moldova with the EU in Pridnestrovie” had been reached at the meeting of the expert groups of Moldova and Pridnestrovie on economic issues.
Given the level of interaction between the press service of the Foreign Ministry of the PMR and the REGNUM news agency, Pridnestrovie was surprised that in the preparation of that material the authors did not refer to the information of the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR, where an official statement on the results of the meeting of the expert groups was already available on April 2. This is particularly strange, as the REGNUM systematically places information in their news feeds from the website of the MFA of the PMR. Moreover, the REGNUM did not consider it necessary then, 12 days ago, to ask the Pridnestrovian side about the position and for an appropriate comment. We assume that the above did not “fit” in with the “task of the editorial office”, but we remain it on the conscience of those in charge of the editorial policy of the agency.
We answer essentially that the information provided in the report of the REGNUM of April 2 that the Pridnestrovian side is involved in the work of the created “working group” is not consistent with the reality. At the meeting of the expert groups on economic issues the Moldovan side informed the Pridnestrovian colleagues that a certain working group was established in the Republic of Moldova, which dealt with the introduction and implementation of mechanisms of the DCFTA in Moldova. For its part, we pay attention to the fact that in January 2015 a briefing book was published on the Internet freely available, drawn up by the partners of the Republic of Moldova for the development, contained a number of recommendations to the Government of the Republic of Moldova. One of the recommendations pointed to the need to start discussing the implementation of the DCFTA in Pridnestrovie in a trilateral format (Kishinev- EU - Tiraspol) and agree on a calendar and the agenda items for 2015. Also, in the medium term there was a proposal to ensure successful functioning of the agreed mechanism for implementing the DCFTA in Pridnestrovie and to develop a mechanism for implementing the DCFTA during 2015, offering specific technical solutions separately from the broader political context. The creation of some special group in the RM is probably the following such recommendations.
In its turn, Pridnestrovie has repeatedly expressed its position on the joining of the Republic of Moldova the new special trade regime with the European Union in the framework of the DCFTA: the Republic of Moldova took a decision to be included in the new customs regime without considering the opinion of Pridnestrovie. The DCFTA bears huge risks for the Pridnestrovian economy. The position of Pridnestrovie is to develop a special mechanism for trade cooperation between Pridnestrovie and the European Union under the conditions of a special trade regime already existing now between Moldova and the EU. In developing this regime, in our opinion, we should be based on the existing realities, including - the unresolved conflict, the difference between the tax systems, the structure of the industrial sector. Pridnestrovie has repeatedly emphasized that it is interested in preserving the European market for those enterprises that traditionally work in it, mainly since 2006 when the Pridnestrovian exports was reoriented towards the markets of the European Union by virtue of the regime of blockade.
Pridnestrovie is also interested in extending the regime of autonomous trade preferences after 2016 in order to avoid a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe under the current global crisis and regional political and economic turbulence.
Pridnestrovie has systemic consultations with the European side and does not support the initiative on conducting trilateral negotiations at this stage. At the same time Pridnestrovie is actively negotiating with the Moldovan side within the appropriate expert group, at the level of political representatives, as well as in the “5+2” format on a range of socio-economic issues, among which there is also the issue on organizing a special trade regime between Moldova and Pridnestrovie, free from mutual constraints. That initiative of Pridnestrovie was announced on October 30, 2013 at the Conference on Confidence-Building Measures in the process of settlement of the Pridnestrovian conflict in Landshut (Germany); relevant information was published on the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PMR on 30 October, 2013. The discussion is currently underway also within the framework of the expert working groups.
We do not link efforts to preserve opportunities for Pridnestrovie’s enterprises to carry out foreign economic activity in the European direction with issues on implementation of the foreign policy course which Pridnestrovie set for itself as the main vector – the Eurasian integration. Pridnestrovie is interested in expanding markets in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union and over the past few years it has made significant progress in the development of economic cooperation, in particular with the Russian Federation.
An extensive work has been carried out on the substantive filling of the economic part of the protocol “Rogozin-Shevchuk” signed in 2013. Pridnestrovie has successfully incorporated into the import substitution programme of the Russian Federation. A number of inter-agency memoranda and protocols of the meetings at the level of the competent agencies of Pridnestrovie and the Russian Federation was signed, the provisions of which, in particular, confirm the recognition by the Russian Federation of phytosanitary and veterinary certificates issued in Pridnestrovie. The Certification Center of the Russian Federation is expected to start working in Pridnestrovie in the near future.
The Eurasian integration is a national idea of Pridnestrovie which fully corresponds to the will of the people of Pridnestrovie, expressed in the referendum, and is supported by our partners in Russia.
