Greater attention to Moldova from October in European Council

The European Council — the reunion of the EU heads of states and governments -- on October 15-16 will have an extra topic on the agenda that has been requested by Romania – the proposal that the European Union should give greater attention to the Republic of Moldova, the only EU neighboring state with a frozen conflict in its national territory, Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu stated after the general Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from the Romanian Government's web site. “We stressed the fact that an enhanced attention was needed in that relation, in the general context of consolidating relations with the Eastern EU neighborhood” says Comanescu. In his view, the Republic of Moldova deserves sensitively higher attention from the EU’ on the one hand regarding the consolidation of the country’s European prospects and, on the other hand, with a view to the fact that it is the only EU neighbor that has a frozen conflict in its territory. The Romanian Foreign Minister also informed that “contacts between Brussels and Chisinau will become more intense in the following period.” In the end of the extraordinary European Council on the Georgian crisis, on September 1, President Traian Basescu was stating that his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy had reassured the participants that the R. of Moldova dossier would be on the agenda of the October Council and added that his intervention during the debates had also touched upon Transnistria. The Head of State has recently said that, on the EU summit in October, he would advocate the inclusion of R. of Moldova to the ‘Western Balkans package’ and not to a package shared with Ukraine, as the latter is a much bugger country therefore the two of them would not be on equal footing Basescu reported having recently talked to Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin and assured that R. of Moldova wanted to join the EU. “We want to see the European prospect of the Republic of Moldova in an EU document,” said Basescu.