The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration said that it took note with surprise of the press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania and of some of the public comments over the agreement between the Government of Moldova and the Government of Romania on the program of technical and financial assistance based on non-reimbursable financial assistance of €100 million provided by Romania to the Republic of Moldova, IPN reports.
The Ministry notes that the initiative to sign the sixth additional protocol (Protocol 6) belongs to the Romanian side, the text of this being presented officially by the Romanian side on December 18, 2018. The Government of Moldova accepted this draft and on February 11, 2019 approved its signing in the form proposed by Romania. The Romanian side was officially informed about this. In the period between February 2019 and July 2020, the Romanian authorities were repeatedly asked to sign the agreed text of Protocol 6. The issue was regularly raised in the bilateral meetings, including during the mutual visits and meetings of Moldovan and Romanian officials in Bucharest and Chisinau.
The necessity of signing Protocol 6 was included as a distinct objective in the roadmap formulated in the meeting of the joint Moldovan-Romanian inter-ministerial working group held in Bucharest on July 23, 2019. Later, the roadmap was signed in Chisinau during the Romanian foreign minister’s visit. Regrettably, starting with the autumn of 2019, the Romanian side had avoided offering a pertinent response as to the prospects of achieving the objectives set down in the roadmap. Despite the made efforts, the Romanian side on November 16, 2020 presented another draft Protocol, which supplemented the agreement with political conditionality elements.
In the bilateral consultations of March 15 this year, which were held on the official insistence of the Moldovan side (request made on February 26, 2021), it was ascertained that the signing and ratification of Protocol 6 in the last version proposed by the Romanian side could take place only before December 23, 2020, when the Government of the Republic of Moldova resigned. An interim Government does not have the right to sign international treaties implying financial commitments for Moldova and to adopt and present ratification bills to Parliament.
The eventual legal solutions proposed by the Moldovan side weren’t accepted as, according to the Romania side, the legislation and practice of Romania, unlike the Moldovan legislation, do not allow re-bringing treaties into force. This way, the sides ascertained the inexistence of circumstances for signing and ratifying Protocol 6 and for keeping the agreement of 2010 valid since the resignation of the Government of the Republic of Moldova on December 23, 2020 until the naming of a new government.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration reiterates the Republic of Moldova’s gratitude for the valuable assistance provided in time by Romania and the Romanian people in a sincere and unconditional way, in the spirit of the European values, based on the historical ties, the common culture and language. It also expresses its readiness to subject a new draft Moldovan-Romanian agreement of cooperation for development assistance to internal procedures when the current political crisis in Moldova is overcome effectively and a Government with full powers is voted in according to democratic and constitutional procedures.
