CHISINAU DEMANDS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT FOR MOLDOVAN PUPILS LIVING IN TRANSNISTRIA, BUT TIRASPOL REJECTS CLAIM AS UNFOUNDED

The Moldovan side believes the Transnistrian administration is only partly fulfilling the Protocol Decision on the functioning of the Latin-script Moldova-administered schools in Transnistria that was signed at the end of 2017.

Moldova's National Bureau for Country Reintegration has reported that this question was raised by the Moldovan delegation during the ordinary meeting of the sides' working groups on education issues that was held in Tiraspol on Monday.

The Chisinau delegation was insisting, in particular, on providing free passage for schoolchildren, their parents and teachers to their schools and on the right ['"Moldovan"] bank of the Dniester River without preliminary notifications or registration with Transnistrian power structures.

The Moldovan experts also drew their Tiraspol colleagues' attention to the addresses and complaints coming from parents and teachers against "the interferences into various situations related to transportation of school property and literature as well as into the resolution of some incidents".

Besides this, Chisinau believes it is necessary to exclude whatever discrimination of the said Moldovan schools in what concern utility tariffs. Chisinau has been long insisting that the Moldova-run schools should pay same tariffs as all the rest Transnistrian educational institutions do.

Commenting on the results of the meeting, the Transnistrian ministry of foreign affairs named as "unfounded the Moldovan side's attacks", and called Chisinau to abstain from such statements, "including in the mass media that influence negatively on the dialog and atmosphere of the negotiations", and to solve all arising questions in a constructive manner within the existing working formats.

In what concerns the tariff policy, the Transnistrian side stressed that the utility tariffs the Moldovan schools pay are analogous to the ones charged on the state-run educational institutions in Transnistria. As for the movement of pupils and teachers to schools, "Transnistria meets all its commitments, and Moldova would not present any documented instances of blockading their movement to their education places".

With an account of the need to ensure the security of Transnistria citizens under age at their leaving the Transnistrian territory, the Tiraspol representatives once again requested to provide them with a nominal list of all pupils and teachers of the Moldovan schools situated in Transnistria.