The owners of vehicles in the Transnistrian region twill receive neutral license plates and will be admitted to international road traffic as of September 1, 2018. An agreement on the mechanism for the participation of vehicles from Transnistria in international road traffic was signed by the Chief Negotiators from Chisinau and Tiraspol in Bender today, April 24, IPN reports.
According to the Government’s press service, the vehicles will have neutral license plates with registration numbers consisting of three letters and three digits and a technical passport that will meet the requirements of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic. The decision refers only to private individuals.
The Transnistrian motor vehicles will be registered at request, in two offices in Tiraspol and Rybnitsa that will be set up with the assistance of the OSCE Mission to Moldova. A vehicle will not have a neutral license number and a Transnistrian license number simultaneously. The inhabitants from the left side of the Nistru who will decide to keep the Transnistrian license number will be able to travel by the given unit of transport only on Moldova’s territory.
In a press release, the OSCE Mission to Moldova said the implementation of the agreement will bring benefits to the lives of people on both banks of the Nistru River and advance the Transnistrian Settlement Process. The Head of the OSCE Mission to Moldova Ambassador Michael Scanlan commended the leadership and collaboration demonstrated by the Sides. “It is the constructive negotiation approach between the Sides and the personal engagement of the Moldovan and Transnistrian leadership, which made this success possible. It is a success story for both Chisinau and Tiraspol,” he said.
The so-called “license plate agreement” together with two other outstanding commitments from the “5+2” Vienna Protocol and the five agreements signed between the Sides in November 2017 in Chisinau and Bender form the “package of eight”, the priorities identified by the Sides in the spring of 2017.
Since the beginning of 2018, the Sides have implemented three out of five agreements signed in November 2017. These relate to the opening between the Sides of the Gura Bicului-Bychok bridge, initiating the apostilization of Transnistrian university diplomas by Moldova and ensuring the functioning of the Moldova-administered Latin-script schools in Transnistrian. The signed agreements on restoring Moldovan farmers’ access to their land in the Dubasari district as well as reintegrating the telecommunication markets are in the process of being implemented.