Serafim Urecheanu: Transnistrian conflict will be solved when political elites in Chisinau and Tiraspol are replaced

The Transnistrian dispute will not be solved as long as Moldova is headed by Vladimir Voronin and the separatist leader Igor Smirnov rules Transnistria, considers the president of the Moldova Noastra Alliance Party (AMN) Serafim Urecheanu. After a meeting with the EU Special Representative for Moldova Kalman Mizsei, the MP told Info-Prim Neo that the Transnistrian conflict could be solved if the two parties returned to the negotiating table. “This thing will not happen as long as Voronin and Smirnov rule in Chisinau and Tiraspol,” the cited source said. The AMN leader said that another factor that maintains the existent situation is the lack of an efficient international mechanism for obliging a country or another to fulfill the assumed commitments. He referred to the non-fulfillment of the commitments to withdraw the troops from Moldova assumed by Russia at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul in 1999. After attending the same meeting, the MP Dumitru Braghis, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, told the Agency that the EU plays an important role in supporting the processes in the post-settlement period, when financial assistance is needed to implement the reached agreements. The role of guarantor that the EU could play is also important, Braghis said. Kalman Mizsei had a meeting with Speaker Marian Lupu, leaders of parliamentary groups and non-affiliated MPs on February 13. The interlocutors discussed the present state and the prospects of solving the Transnistrian dispute. Kalman Mizsei reasserted that the EU is in favour of identifying a solution based on the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Moldova and on the fundamental European values, within the international legal framework.