ISN - Zurich, Switzerland
The EU launched on Wednesday an assistance mission at the Moldova-Ukraine border crossing aimed at helping both sides improve border and customs services and combat illegal activities.
The EU mission is being deployed in Odessa following a request for assistance by the governments of Ukraine and Moldova to help prevent smuggling, trafficking, and customs fraud, and to provide advice and training.
EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana and European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner represented the 25 nation bloc at a ceremony to mark the launch of the mission.
Former Ukrainian foreign minister Borys Tarasyuk and Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan also attended.
"We launch the Assistance Mission in response to requests from the Ukrainian and Moldovan presidents, who have demonstrated their strong attachment to European values," Solana said in a statement on the eve of the ceremony.
The Border Assistance Mission has a two-year mandate, which can be extended. It will cost around ??8 million.
The mission will be headquartered in Odessa and will have five field offices staffed by 69 experts seconded from EU nations, as well as some 50 local support staff.
The Border Assistance Mission will be headed by Brigadier-General Ferenc Banfi of Hungary, and will include border police and customs officials from 16 EU member states - Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK.
"The mission will provide on-the-job training and advice to Moldovan and Ukrainian officials, reinforcing their capacity to carry out effective border and customs controls and border surveillance. The aim is to build confidence and strengthen cross-border cooperation and the exchange of information between the two countries," the European Commission said in a statement.
"The mission will also play an important role in building preconditions for seeking a peaceful settlement of the Transdniester conflict," Solana said in his statement ahead of the ceremony.
The EU hopes the border assistance mission will further the efforts to find a settlement to the long-standing conflict between Moldova and Transdniester.
Border cooperation and efforts to seek a solution to the frozen conflict in Transdniester featured in the European Neighbourhood Action Plans (ENP) agreed with both Moldova and Ukraine last year.
In 1992, a short civil war took place in the region of Transdniester on the eastern Moldovan border. After a cease-fire, a separation line was established, guarded by peacekeeping forces consisting mostly of Russian troops, as well as troops from both sides in Moldova.
Some 1,500 Russian troops are deployed there, along with tens of thousands of tonnes of ammunition and armoured vehicles. A small number of Ukrainian troops, a total of ten, are also deployed there.
Transdniester succeeded in establishing its de-facto independence from Moldova in 1992, but is not internationally recognized.
The leader of Transdniester, Igor Smirnov, and Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, are considered to be close allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin, though Voronin has shown more flexibility regarding Western attempts to democratize former Soviet republics.
Since 1995, Moldova and Transdniester, assisted by three international mediators - the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Russia, and Ukraine - have been engaged in peace talks. In September, the EU and the US were invited to join as observers.
In November 2003, Voronin refused to sign on to a Russian-sponsored plan to federalize Moldova in order to solve the deadlock over the breakaway territory of Transdniester, prompting Putin to cancel a planned visit to the capital, Chisinau. Critics of the plan had predicted that it would eventually lead to the countrys breakup.
According to a report last year by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Transdniester is "essentially a mafia-run fiefdom which survives thanks only to criminal profits and support from certain circles in Russia and Ukraine - and the security presence of the 14th Russian Army".
The report said the region was a prime location for money laundering and the production and illegal export of weapons, which are untraceable because of their lack of serial numbers.
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