Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration : Following 24 February 2022, quality of relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol changed and depends on Moldova's European direction

Chisinau, April 11 /MOLDPRES/- We are in a rather difficult moment for the whole region, especially for Ukraine, but the Transnistrian issue is strongly connected to all the tragic events happening in the neighbouring state, and February 24, 2022 was a turning point in everything related to this issue. Suddenly, all the approaches that had been in place up to that point became obsolete, some were cancelled, others put on hold to be rethought, and the quality of relations between Chisinau and Tiraspol changed. Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebrian made the statements at the First Reintegration Forum of the Republic of Moldova, held in Chisinau today.

"Until 24 February 2022, there were many plans, concepts, projects, integration strategies, but afterwards, all the coordinates of all the conflicts in the Black Sea region were changed, which requires a different approach from the European Union; Georgia, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova having the status of EU candidate countries. The tone of the reintegration process will be determined by the speed at which we move towards the EU and not vice versa," the official said.

Oleg Serebrian also said "from this perspective it is very important to have a dialogue with Tiraspol, focused specifically on this European case".

"I think that an additional group, but apart from the 1+1 process, which remains alive and has its own purpose, is to be set up and we hope that Tiraspol will be open to such discussions. We need the implementation of concrete measures in the customs, fiscal, banking, standardisation, ecological fields, all those rigours that Moldova must fulfil and has undertaken to fulfil, to be gradually extended to the left bank of the Dniester," he said.

The event was organized by the Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Moldova and the Reintegration Policy Office, in cooperation with Expert-Grup and Promo-LEX Association. It aimed to contribute to the development of a national vision on the country's reintegration process through a platform for dialogue and discussion with representatives of public authorities, civil society, research centres, international organisations and diplomatic missions.