EU mission en route for Transdniester frontier

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 09/06/05

The EU is to send a team of experts to the Ukrainian border with the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transdniester later this month to assess the possibility of setting up a full EU border-monitoring mission.

The Moldovan authorities currently have no control over the frontier, which is seen as a major route for arms, contraband and people smuggling into Western Europe.

As diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict between Moldova and Transdniester intensify, the EU is coming under pressure from Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities to act.

Transdniesterian president, Igor Smirnov is accused of propping up his self-styled republic with trade in contraband, arms and other illegal activities.

The region also remains the site of large stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons which experts have warned could be falling into the wrong hands.

Moldova hopes that stopping the illegal flows will increase economic pressure on Smirnov to seek a political solution to the frozen conflict, which has created a potentially volatile stand-off since Transdniester declared its independence in 1990.

The EU mission is likely to look at the possibility of fitting the border with a computerised system of monitoring the flows of goods and people, as well as other possibilities of international assistance.

According to the Ukrainian envoy for the Transdniester conflict Dmytro Tkach, Ukraine and Moldova will press the EU to take action.

In a diplomatic offensive this week, Tkach and the Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin both visited Brussels to push for EU assistance in monitoring the border.

"We would give much support and help to this effort," he said.

Tkach refused to put a cost on the work, but pointed out that so far this year the US had pledged around €1 million to help with border-monitoring equipment including high surveillance cameras, jeeps, motorboats and night-vision goggles.

He also said that much of the equipment the EU shelved after it dismantled borders between member states could be effectively used by his government.

Kiev would like to see the EU funds help monitor not only the Transdniesterian stretch of the Moldovan-Ukraine border but its full length.

But with funding for EU common foreign and security projects running low the Union is increasingly cautious about what it supports.

The EU is also coming under pressure from Kiev and Chisinau to engage politically in the resolution of the conflict.

The Union has recently appointed a special envoy to Moldova, but the two would also like to see the EU join the five-party talks between Russia, Moldova, Ukraine, Transdniester and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which have so far resulted in stalemate.

"We very much urge the EU to join the negotiating process the format can be different, they can be involved directly or through observation, they should chose for themselves," said Tkach.

"The EU has a clear interest in solving the crisis," he said.

Under a plan to solve the crisis put forward recently by the Ukrainian government, the EU is also being asked to help funding elections in Transdniester.

But according to diplomats the EU remains concerned about the impact of its involvement on Russia's attitude towards the talks.

Russia has traditionally backed Smirnov's regime and the presence of Russian troops in Transdniester ensures that Russia remains a powerful player in the region.

Article reports that the EU was to send a team of experts to the Ukrainian border with the breakaway Moldovan republic of Transdniester during June 2005 to assess the possibility of setting up a full EU border-monitoring mission. At the time the Moldovan authorities had no control over the frontier, which was seen as a major route for arms, contraband and people smuggling into Western Europe.