EU Special Representative denies...

The Special Representative of the European Union for Moldova, Kalman Mizsei, has denied allegations appearing from time to time in press commentaries that the EU is taking into account Moscow's position in an exaggerated manner while forming up its policies towards Moldova. He has also denied, in an interview with the news agency Info-Prim Neo, the existence of a so-called “Hungarian mandate” in Moldova. When asked, in the context of the allegations about the EU-Russia relations concerning Moldova, how often he has to play the role of a “mediator” or a “courier” between Brussels and Moscow in Moldova-related issues, Kalman Mizsei found the question to be “weird”. “This is a weird question if you allow me to say this. I am representing an agreed position of the EU member states and I work under the guidance of the European Union High Representative, Javier Solana until recently and Lady Ashton now (Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the EU for foreign affairs and security policy). How can I mediate between myself and someone else?”. “We are very proud of the role we have been playing both, in the Transnistrian settlement process as well as in protecting democratic values in right bank Moldova. This place would be different without our very intensive engagement in the last period, particularly last year. Some people expect from us to make bombastic one-sided statements rather than what we did which is acting relentlessly for democratic procedures in Moldova. But what we do is called following democratic values. We should not pick the winners of the democratic process but care for the quality of Moldovan democracy”, said the EU Special Representative. Commenting on the allegations of certain analysts about the “Hungarian mandate” of the EU in Moldova, Kalman Mizsei doubted the label of “analyst” of the authors of such ideas. “In the European Union we have largely overcome these kinds of limited national stereotypes so you should very seriously doubt the European values of those “analysts” who think this way. This is the heritage of Soviet type socialism where the propaganda was all about internationalism and the reality was this kind of primitive nationalism that those “experts” still expose, who believe that my nationality matters in the way I perform my job or that Hungary would have some kind of hidden agenda here”. “In the European integration nations learn the benefit of living together and solving their problems through dialogue, mutual compromises – all the values that we also advocate here for you. I am a European official who spent large part of his career in international services and whose professional mission has happened to be reforming Eastern Europe, from the economy up to the kind of issues your question involves. Those people who make you believe that my nationality is important here want to take you back to the dark ages when everything was only seen through the prism of nationalistic prejudices and distrusts. Better avoid the advise of those “experts”. Speaking of Hungary, you should also notice that the relationship between Hungary and its neighbor, Romania, has never been as good as now, in the environment of joint integration in the European Union. Their whole governments regularly meet to advance their integration, their bilateral deep cooperation. They also act in the European Union in a coordinated manner on many issues, incidentally also ones that relate to Moldova”, stated Kalman Mizsei in the interview with Info-Prim Neo, published Monday, March 1. Kalman Mizsei was appointed EU Special Representative for Moldova on March 1, 2007 for a three-year term. Recently, the Council of the EU prolonged his term in office until August 31, 2010.