JOINT BORDER CONTROL REALIZATION DISCUSSED AT MOLDOVAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

The results of introduction of a joint border control at Cuciurgan station on the Transnistrian segment of the Moldo-Ukrainian border were discussed on Tuesday between Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Lilian Darii and Ambassador Andrew Tesoriere, Head of the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM).

Lilian Darii thanked EUBAM for their assistance in project realization, in particular in informing citizens crossing the state border via the major Cuciurgan station situated on the strategic Chisinau-Odessa highway.

As already reported by Infotag, on June 1, 2017 Moldova and Ukraine introduced at Cuciurgan their joint border control of passengers, motor vehicles and cargoes crossing the border. Cuciurgan has become the 5th such point where the Moldovan and Ukrainian authorities organized their joint border and customs control on the basis of a corresponding inter-governmental agreement. This project is supported by the European Union, including by means of the EU Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM). Later, however, the joint control at Cuciurgan was suspended "for technical reasons".

The joint border control at Cuciurgan is going to be carried out in two stages. At the first stage to last about 6 months, the officers of the Moldovan Customs Service and of Border Police will be controlling jointly with Ukrainian colleagues only the exports of goods from the Transnistrian region. At the second phase, the two countries will begin controlling jointly both export and import flows as well as the movement of motor vehicles and persons.

The joint control is called to simplify the movement of commodities, motor vehicles and persons by using the principle of "one stop - one window", in particular by means of carrying out necessary customs procedures with goods from the Transnistrian region, including excisable goods, in order to save time and transportation expenditures, as well as by a selective control of motor vehicles and goods.

The authorities of the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic are categorically against such "Moldovan control on our border", regarding this to be "a new spiral of economic blockade against Transnistria". Their position is backed by Moscow. Last July 7, the Russian State Duma [parliament] adopted a Statement calling on Chisinau and Kiev to give up "the practice of pressing on Transnistria".