BUCHAREST, April 4. (AGERPRES). Chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs Petru Filip believes finding a real solution to the Transnistria issue will facilitate Moldova’s bid for European Union accession.

In an interview with Agerpres, Filip says that Moldova and Ukraine are NATO and EU’s avowed ‘pawns’, but the European family needs countries that are not plagued with additional issues related to regions where separatist trends are still on.

‘Moldova is one of the major pawns avowed by the EU and NATO. Moldova has not signed yet security treaties Romania has as a member of both NATO and the EU. But, because things are at an enough advanced stage toward Moldova and Ukraine being accepted in the EU space, the two countries have a quite important security state. Someone might still ask what will happen with Transnistria. Some argue that the real separation of Transnistria would save Moldova from the issue of a frozen conflict because there is indeed a frozen conflict, whether we accept it or not. So, this is a situation that, unfortunately, the international 5+2 negotiation format has not settled. It has been going on for a long time without diplomatic solutions having been found. I believe that a solution, as real as possible, if found as quick as possible, would lead to a more rapid accession of Moldova to the EU. The EU needs countries that are acceptable to the European family that do not have such additional issues related to regions that want to break away,’ Filip explained.

He also mentioned that some Transnistria officials have voiced wish for Transnistria being annexed to the Russian Federation, patterned on Crimea’s recent annexation.

‘They went to Moscow and tried to discuss with the Russian Federation rulers in hopes that they will follow into the footsteps of Crimea. I find it hard now to say whether of not Moldova accepts such an approach, because in the end it is Moldova the one that has to decide how to solve the Transnistria issue. For the time being, Transnistria is a regional structure that poses problems because of separatist wishes there,’ Filip tells Agerpres in the same interview.

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