Publication

Moldova’s progress in its negotiations on an Association Agreement with the European Union, with a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) as its key element, has become a source of tension between Chisinau and the breakaway Republic of Transnistria. This paper argues that an almost certain refusal by Transnistria to join the DCFTA will deprive the region of the benefits it currently enjoys under the EU Autonomous Trade Preferences (ATP), worsening its already precarious economic situation. The authors expect that the issue will become an additional source of tension between the two sides of the Transnistrian conflict, and might also have a negative impact on the EU–Russia relationship.