What is your assessment of the current cooperation between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Moldova? Which are the priority areas ?

The UK continues to be a consistently strong supporter of Moldova's conflict resolution and European integration efforts.
The UK Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been working to help the Moldovan Government tackle corruption and organised crime, strengthen public administration, and facilitate export of Moldovan goods to EU markets. We have also worked with various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to support respect for human rights, freedom of expression and media freedom, conflict resolution, to promote democratic values and to build the capacity of civil society organisations. 
Our Department for International Development (DFID), the UK Government Department responsible for tackling world poverty, is also represented within the British Embassy Chisinau and is working to help Moldova achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
We support the 5+2 process on Transnistria and work closely with the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the EU Special Representative (EUSR) for Moldova to improve the prospects of a lasting settlement. The UK's focus has been in bringing groups from both sides of the conflict together to discuss shared problems and identify solutions. We do this, for example, with young people from both banks of the Nistru through our Transnistrian Dialogues project, which has encouraged discussion and been a forum for them to express their concerns for the future to senior politicians involved in settlement negotiations.

What are the most important tasks of your agenda for this year? For which of the projects started by your predecessor will you ensure continuity? Have you established new opportunities for deepening the bilateral relations of Moldovan and the UK ?
My agenda - and I guess that of many others in the diplomatic community in Moldova - for this year has been dominated by the parliamentary elections held on 5 April, the events following them, and the new elections that are now going to be held on 29 July.
After the 29 July elections, and when a new Government is in place, the UK will work with it to assess its priorities and identify the areas we may be able to offer assistance. Obviously it is very important that the UK works with other donors - representatives of other countries and organisations who are also working here in Moldova - so that whatever we do compliments what others, such as the European Commission and other EU Member States, are doing.
One area which I would like us to develop further is parliamentary links between the UK and Moldova, including potentially between the Welsh Assembly and the Gagauzian People's Assembly. I have found that there is considerable interest here in how the UK has developed its system of devolved administrations. We would be interested in sharing further that experience.

This is your first interview for Radio Moldova. Could you please tell us what you knew about our country before arriving to Chisinau? How is Moldova seen from the UK ?
I think it is fair to say that Moldova does not have a high profile in the UK. But I have spent the past four years living in Lithuania where I was the Deputy Ambassador at the British Embassy in Vilnius working on EU enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy issues.
I also have an interest in conflict resolution from experience in Mozambique early on in my diplomatic career. So there were a number of professional reasons which combined to help me develop my interest in Moldova.
And when my wife, Kate, and I visited Chisinau for the first time last summer we could see what a well designed and green city it is. We are both very pleased to be here. The excellent Moldovan wine helps too of course !

United Kingdom has a strong voice within the European Union and plays an important role in its foreign policy. Based on the experience of your country take, how do you rate Moldova's chances in terms of its accession to European Union ? Could the new EU-Moldova agreement accelerate the accession process and how relevant is the name of such an agreement ? Lately there is a lot of discussion about the absorption capacity of the European Union and less about the Copenhagen criteria required for a state's accession to the EU. What is your opinion about this ?
[I would like to answer these three questions together, as they are interlinked.]
EU enlargement is one of the key priorities for the UK Government. The UK Government remains a strong supporter of further enlargement, which is both helping us respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation and is also our most effective means of sharing our stability and prosperity with our neighbours. The new Eastern Partnership, launched in Prague on 7 May, provides an exciting and ambitious framework in which the EU can strengthen its relationship with its Eastern neighbours.
On 15 June, the General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) of the EU issued a statement confirming its commitment to enhancing EU support for further political and economic reforms in the Republic of Moldova, aimed in particular at strengthening democracy and good governance, the rule of law, freedom of the media and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
But in that statement the EU also expressed a number of serious concerns about recent events in Moldova:
• concern over the human rights abuses that took place after the 5 April elections;
• concern about the deterioration of freedom of expression and media freedom;
• concern about equal access of political parties to public media (including Teleradio-Moldova);
• and concern about harassment of independent media, civil society organisations and political parties.
The UK and its EU partners are closely following political developments in Moldova and urge all those involved to ensure that the elections to be held on 29 July are free and fair and in line with OSCE, Venice Commission, and Council of Europe recommendations.
The EU is intending to negotiate a new agreement between with Moldova that will go beyond the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The conduct of the 29 July elections will influence how the EU takes this forward, as will the new Government's commitment to implementing actions which remain outstanding from the current Agreement.

We do this interview on the occasion of a UK national celebration. Could you please tell us about the significance of this date and the ways of it is celebrated.
National days are not celebrated in the UK in the same way they are in most other countries. The different parts of the UK have their own national days: in Wales on 1 March (St David's Day), in Northern Ireland on 17 March (St Patrick's Day), in England on 23 April (St George's Day), and in my own part of the country, Scotland, on 30 November (St Andrew's Day).
What we have been celebrating this week has been the Official Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. The British Embassy in Chisinau, and other British diplomatic missions around the world, use this occasion to host receptions to which a wide range of local contacts are invited. In the UK, The Queen's Official Birthday is marked by a big parade in central London called The Trooping of the Colour, which as its name suggests is a very colourful military occasion.

 

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