German official: You won’t go far with the Transnistrian conflict

“The European Union knows the difficulty of having a member with a frozen conflict on its territory. Things must be sorted out long before. You won’t go far with the Transnistrian problem”, said Ruprecht Polenz, head of the German Bundestag foreign affairs commission. He participated in a round table in Chisinau on the topic “European integration and the Transnistrian conflict: Key aspects of the Moldova-Germany bilateral agenda”, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We see Moldovan authorities’ efforts to get closer to the EU. This conflict must be unfrozen and included on the EU agenda. 70% of Moldovans want to join the EU and also 70% consider Russia to be Moldova’s most important partner. These things are incompatible. Moldova must choose one or the other”, declared Ruprecht Polenz. The head of the Bundestag foreign affairs commission added that before solving the Transnistrian conflict, Moldova must solve other urgent internal matters: electing the President and improving the economy. These internal problems hinder the implementation of necessary reforms. Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca, who attended the round table as well, said that the development of the Transnistrian problem reached an unprecedented tempo over the last two years, due to enhanced communication with both the EU and the Transnistrian de facto authorities. However, Iurie Leanca admitted that reforms are delayed because of arguments inside the Alliance for European Integration. “I hope we’ll soon find out why things are not going as well as in the beginning and we’ll sort it out”, he said. The event was organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.