Tag: Moldova

Russia yesterday (10 September) announced a ban on imports of Moldovan wines and spirits, saying they contained impurities, a move certain to be seen in the small ex-Soviet republic as retaliation for its drive to expand ties with the European Union.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss Syria, Egypt and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with European officials on a weekend trip to Vilnius, Paris and London, where he will see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the State Department said yesterday (5 September).

Armenia will join a customs union led by its former Soviet master Russia, the country’s President Serzh Sargsyan said yesterday (3 September), a move incompatible with the free trade agreement the EU is preparing with Yerevan.

Moldova will take its first steps towards diversifying its energy supplies today (27 August) when it inaugurates a gas pipeline with the EU, so ending its energy dependence on Russia.

Moldova's parliament gave itself powers to sack Constitutional Court judges and change election rules, moves Brussels said would harm the country's bid for closer ties with the European Union.

Over the last year, Moldova and Georgia have cooperated “quite well” with the EU, under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), while Ukraine, which used to be the front-runner, is lagging behind, according to reports to be published today (20 March).

With a eurozone crisis and other challenges to deal with, why has German Chancellor Angela Merkel taken such an interest in tiny Moldova? One reason is that Moldova is sitting on the borders of the EU and the unresolved conflict there remains dangerous and unstable. Another is that Merkel wanted to use the frozen conflict in Transnistria as a test case for Berlin’s relations with the Kremlin, writes Judy Dempsey.

Moldova's parliament elected a veteran judge who vowed to tackle rampant corruption as the country's new president on Friday (16 March), ending a three-year hiatus that had delayed reform in the impoverished, ex-Soviet republic.

A rare meeting between the leaders of Moldova and its rebel Transnistria region this week could kick-start efforts to end one of the most intractable frozen conflicts in Europe, the ex-Soviet republic's prime minister said yesterday (7 September) in Krynica, Poland.

Moldova could have a new government before the end of this week, as only "small details" remain to be agreed, report local media, quoting politicians from the Pro-European Alliance.

The Polish and Swedish foreign ministers were in Chisinau yesterday (8 December) in a bid to prevent a party from Moldova's pro-European ranks from changing camps to form a government with the country's pro-Russia Communist Party.

Mihai Ghimpu, the acting president of Moldova, has described a border treaty recently signed by the country's government with Romania as "illegal and unconstitutional". The move heightened the political atmosphere ahead of early parliamentary elections on 28 November. EurActiv Romania reports.

Citizens of Belarus are largely uninterested in the EU, while sympathies in Ukraine are divided between Brussels and Moscow. By contrast, a large majority in Moldova would like to see a deepening of the country's relations with the Union, reveals a University of Aberystwyth survey seen exclusively by EurActiv.

With the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has more capacity and more powerful tools to establish more of a presence and play a more effective role in resolving Transnistria's frozen conflict, Victor Osipov, deputy prime minister of Moldova, told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Despite setbacks, Romania will continue supporting the inclusion of Moldova in the Western Balkan group of countries that were promised EU accession, Romanian President Traian Basescu pledged during a visit to his country's neighbour. EurActiv Romania reports.

Moldova's new Western-leaning coalition made an unsuccessful attempt today (7 December) to get its candidate elected as president by parliament and end months of deadlock. The troubled country now heads for early parliamentary elections.

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin announced today (11 September) that he was resigning after the defeat of his Communist Party in early elections held last July. A leader of the democratic pro-Western opposition will take over as acting president, pending early elections next year.

Pro-European opposition parties said they would join forces to form a government after they won a combined majority of 53 seats in the Moldovan parliament following early elections yesterday (29 July). EurActiv Romania reports.

Moldova's ruling Communist Party appeared unlikely to secure enough votes to elect a new president on 20 May, in a parliamentary vote that could plunge the former Soviet state into further political turmoil.

The latest development since Moldova's elections earlier this month saw Romanian President Traian Basescu yesterday (14 April) order the simplification of procedures for granting citizenship to ethnic Romanians living in Moldova, saying a million requests were waiting in his country's embassy in Chisinau.

Election officials in Moldova said they will conduct tomorrow (15 April) a recount after the country’s communist president requested the procedure in the aftermath of violent protests following general elections last week. Civil society groups warned that conditions were being created for the establishment of a police and dictatorial regime.

Those who went on the rampage in the centre of the capital of Moldova yesterday (7 April) were troublemakers, Julien Danero, a Belgian researcher at the Free University of Brussels (ULB), told EurActiv in a telephone interview from Chisinau today.

President Vladimir Voronin called on Western countries yesterday (7 April) to help restore order after protestors seized his offices and ransacked parliament. Moldova's ruling Communists won the elections held on Sunday, but the opposition said the poll was rigged.

Relations between Bulgaria and Romania have flourished since they joined the Union in January 2007, Romanian Socialist MEP Victor Bostinaru told EurActiv in an interview, calling for regional cooperation to be extended to the whole Black Sea area.