President Nicolae Timofti has rejected the request of the initiative group that plans to hold a referendum on Moldova’s accession to the Founding Treaty of the Eurasian Economic Community for the creation a unified customs area and a customs union. The President explained his decision by saying that this referendum seeks to block the European integration process and destabilize the country’s political situation, Info-prim Neo reports. The President’s message was conveyed to the press by his spokesperson, Vlad Turcanu, who told a press briefing that the President considers this referendum inopportune also because the central electoral authority has concluded that procedural violations were committed by the referendum’s support group when collecting the required 200,000 signatures. “The Electoral Code says that problems that are mutually exclusive can’t be put forward for a referendum. The proposed referendum contradicts Moldova’s European development vector, established by the voters in the latest parliamentary elections and implemented by the current government coalition as a national development strategic project”, argued the President in his message. Later today, the initiative group promoting the referendum issued a press statement to express its discontent with the President’s public answer, “which further denigrates the citizens of Moldova, just like the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) did, ignoring the will of the people who support the legislative referendum on Moldova’s accession to the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union”. “Even though the head of state is bound to act in conformity with the constitutional attributions, Nicolae Timofti proved to be a head of state belonging to the leadership of the Alliance for European Integration (AIE) and not to the entirety of Moldova’s population. Chosen by the AIE, the Moldovan President lost the trust of the Moldovan citizens significantly, even though he could have manifested a respectful attitude towards the will of the 232,000 citizens who support the referendum and even that of the 67% of Moldovans who support Moldova joining the Customs Union, according to the opinion polls”, reads the statement. In early August, CEC rejected the support group’s initiative on grounds that, besides procedural breaches, a significant number of signatures in support of the referendum were faked or otherwise invalid. Subsequently, the support group appealed the decision with the President.