Politicization of subject of joint meeting in Iasi affects Chisinau’s interests, analyst

The expectations of the joint meeting of the Governments of Moldova and Romania should not be exaggerated. This meeting will center strictly on technical aspects, political analyst Ion Tabarta, deputy head of the Political Analysis and Consultancy Center “Politicon”, has told Info-Prim Neo. The analyst believes that the politicization of this subject by certain political parties of Moldova affects the national interests and the Moldovan-Romanian relations. As a result, this can lead to negative consequences for the Moldova – EU relations. Ion Tabarta said a number of issues concerning the Moldovan-Romanian relations require increased attention. In 2009, these relations returned to normality. The two countries cooperated prodigiously in a number of fields. The new dynamics of the Moldovan-Romanian relations resulted in numerous reciprocal visits at the highest level, signing of bilateral agreements, opening of consulates, etc. “The joint meeting of the Governments of Moldova and Romania forms part of the dynamics of the Moldovan-Romanian relations in the last few years. This practice for Moldova is a novelty, while Romanian already had such interstate meeting, especially with Bulgaria,” said the analyst. The agenda of the Moldovan-Romanian discussions includes projects to interconnect the energy systems, the construction of bridges and access ways and modernization of the infrastructure between the two states. The economic relations at this moment are not the most prolific as they need to be considerably improved, said Ion Tabarta. The opening of the Romanian labor market for Moldovan workers may be a separate subject in the relations between Moldova and Romania. “It should be noted that Moldova’s integration into the European energy system and the connection to the European transport infrastructure are practically impossible without cooperation with Romania,” said the analyst. The two states intend to implement energy and infrastructure projects of common interest. They include the building of the Straseni-Iasi 440 kV power line, the connection of the Ungheni-Iasi gas pipeline to the gas store in Margineni, and the construction of the Iasi-Chisinau and Chisinau-Ungheni railways with European gauges. The joint meeting of the Moldovan and Romanian executives will take place in Iasi on March 3.