Official Chisinau denies Transdniestria's accusations

Chisinau has denied accusations of blocking the activity of a joint Commission that works out the new Moldovan Constitution, reported the governmental news agency Moldpres.

The accusations were brought up late last week by Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov /Transdniestria is a territory on the left bank of the Dniestr, inhabited mostly by Russian speaking population, which declared independence from Moldova in the early 1990s/. He had said that members of the Constitutional Commission were unable to even work out their own Regulations. Ion Cranga, who chairs the Moldovan part of the Commission, had retorted by calling the accusations "groundless." According to his words, the Transdniestrian delegation had approved a working version proposed by Chisinau and supported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and guarantors. The Regulations had been adopted almost in full, he had said.

It is expected now that the co-chairmen of the Commission shall meet on June 25 to discuss two matters concerning the Regulations, on which they failed to reach an agreement earlier, a source in the OSCE mission to Moldova told RIA Novosti.

The two matters in question are the place of meetings and the number of Commission members to be engaged in the working out of the draft Constitution.

The sides are also expected to announce the date of the next meeting.