The OSCE Office in Tiraspol hosted a regular meeting between the representatives on political issues of Pridnestrovie and Moldova Nina Shtanski and Yevgeny Karpov.
Today's meeting intended to discuss a large number of issues of interest to both parties in the negotiation process. However, in view of temporary restrictions, the meeting participants (except the parties, the meeting was attended only by the representatives of Russia's Embassy in Moldova, and the OSCE Office in Tiraspol) focused the discussion on forced documentation of the Pridnestrovie's citizens by the appropriate authorities of the RM, on the existing artificial restrictions concerning economic agents of Pridnestrovie, as well as the development of the renewed mechanism of land use by Moldovan farmers in Dubossary District of Pridnestrovie.
In the course of the meeting the Pridnestrovian side announced a number of detailed initiatives aimed at finding a settlement to the issue related to the forced documentation of Pridnestrovie's citizens by the appropriate authorities of the RM. According to the political representative of Pridnestrovie Nina Shtanski, over the last two years the problem concerning the refusal to issue stateless persons certificates to Pridnestrovie's citizens by the appropriate authorities of Moldova on the unfounded pretexts. She noted that such certificate was needed for those citizens who wanted to obtain citizenship of other countries, particularly, of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. “Exacerbating the problem is that the Moldovan side started to include such petitioners automatically in the database of the citizens of Moldova. Thereby, when a Pridnestrovian citizen applies for such certificate, he is told that he is automatically given a citizenship of Moldova, thus he is deprived of a fundamental human right – to have the right to choose a citizenship, ” – noted the head of the Pridnestrovian diplomacy during the briefing.
“According to international agreements in this field and the legislation of Moldova, citizens are given a right, rather than an obligation, to acquire citizenship. It is their choice. The actions by the authorized persons of Moldova deprive the Pridnestrovian people of the opportunity to exercise the inalienable right of everyone,” – said Nina Shtanski at the meeting. Besides, the Head of the MFA noted that the position of the Pridnestrovian side was understood among the numerous delegations of European structures visiting Pridnestrovie. Nina Shtanski expressed her intention to continue discussion of the issue on the forced documenting of Pridnestrovie's people in 5+2 format as well.
The Head of the PMR's MFA proposed that the Moldovan side should request expert assistance from international mediators in the analysis of existing international norms relating to voluntary obtaining citizenship of some state. She emphasized that the acquisition of citizenship is the right, not the obligation, and on that basis, she considered unacceptable the existing automatic procedure of granting Moldovan citizenship to the Pridnestrovian people.
As one of the variants of further work, including work at the expert level, the political representative of Pridnestrovie proposed a simplified mechanism of renunciation of Moldovan citizenship for people of the republic.
The representatives of Russia's Embassy in Moldova who attended the meeting gave the example of Estonia where such problem had taken place earlier and had been resolved. “Despite the fact that Estonia has obligations to European Union, perhaps, as much as the Republic of Moldova which is not a member of the EU,” – added Nina Shtanski.
The political representatives draw attention to the issue on removal of restrictions in the implementation of development of the total trade between Pridnestrovie and Moldova, as well as they discussed a number of problems of concrete economic agents of Pridnestrovie.
Within the initiative proposed earlier concerninf the establishing trade regime between both states, free from mutual restrictions, Nina Shtanski passed to the Moldovan delegation a list of mutual administrative barriers that impeded expansion of trade. Among which is nonrecognition of Certificates of Testing by the Moldovan side, Certificates of Conformity, Phytosanitary and Veterinary Certificate, certificates of audit, issued in Pridnestrovie, blocking money transfer, lack of established information exchange, etc. The given list is expected to be supplemented by the Moldovan side and become a useful basis for further discussions both at the level of the political representatives, and of the expert (working) groups on economic issues.
In the course of the meeting Nina Shtanski and Yevgeny Karpov paid attention to the issue of land use in Dubossary District of Pridnestrovie. On the whole, there was not yet agreement on that issue. At the same time, the sides agreed that the renewed mechanism of land use would include the signing an Agreement on conditions of temporary land use between the Moldovan farmers and the State Administration of Dubossary which would include rights and obligations of the sides, the description of land plots, and other regulations. However, the meeting participants did not come to a compromise over the payments for land use by the Moldovan farmers in Dubossary District. “I note that the Moldovan side collects land taxes from the Moldovan farmers, who use Pridnestrovian land, but we proposed that the Moldovan side should exempt the Moldovan farmers from those payments, thus the farmers will be able to cover expenses for land lease from the Pridnestrovian side,” – outlined the proposals of Pridnestrovie Nina Shtanski. Unfortunately, according to her, the sides did not come to a common agreement. At the same time, the political representative of Pridnestrovie noted that there was a good potential in the discussion on joint monitoring the effectiveness of the land use.
