The Republic of Moldova is independent and is responsible for the decisions it will take with regard to the Transnistrian dispute. This is how the message transmitted by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell at the European Political Community Summit in Bulboaca can be interpreted, ex-Deputy Premier for Reintegration of Moldova Alexandru Flenchea, director of the Association “Initiative for Peace”, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN.

“Borrell’s main message was: Moldovans, things will develop as you want. And we should realize that we should not wait for someone from outside the county to tell us what to do and how to do. If things go as we want, we should ultimately discuss and see what we want to do with our county and how we want the country to look in the medium and short terms and based on these ideas should build our cooperation with the EU. Not Brussels will decide how our country will look like. The decisions, plans and actions are decided by us, not by our partners,” noted Alexandru Flenchea.

Asked who profits from the maintaining of the frozen conflict on the left side of the Nistru, the former Deputy Premier for Reintegration said that there are two beneficiaries – a political one in Moscow and those who financially benefit from this situation. Moscow wants Moldova, as other countries in the region, to be divided, dysfunctional and easily manipulable through secessionist conflicts. As to those who earn money due to this conflict, it goes to smuggling, the “free” gas supplies, “businesses” that can exist only as long as the Transnistrian region keeps the current formula, when the law does not work on the left side of the Nistru.

According to Alexandru Flenchea, resolving the Transnistrian conflict is the biggest contribution that Moldova can make to building peace and security. “We should eliminate the security risks and threats originating in this conflict, the foreign military presence on this territory. This is a matter of principle, but in general, being am active party in the next security arrangements in Europe, in the Black Sea region, is the absolute priority for our country. When this is war is over, new European security architecture will be built. If we do not become involved now and are not part of the discussions on how this new architecture will look like, we will remain behind all the processes and outside the mechanisms for ensuring peace in the region,” said Alexandru Flenchea.

The debate entitled “European Political Community Summit – signals for reintegration of the Republic of Moldova and its integration into the EU” was staged by IPN News Agency in the framework of the project “Support for European Integration by stimulating discussion in the mass media about the European Political Community (EPC) Summit” that is supported by Soros Foundation Moldova.