The Mayor of Iași, Mihai Chirica, announced that he will initiate the procedures to suspend the twinning with the city of Chisinau, after Mayor Ion Ceban was denied access to Romania and, implicitly, to the Schengen area, reports IPN.
“We are experiencing a significant and painful disruption for me as a mayor, because we are talking about a large city, Iasi, with another large city, Chisinau, the capital. But there are some reservations about the way of communication,” declared the mayor of Iasi.
Chirica explained that, being twinned cities, cooperation implies direct visits and immediate contacts, however, the ban applied to Ceban makes the continuation of relations in the current form impossible.
“It’s a very serious issue. Because in this cooperation report, the mayor of Chisinau cannot come to Iasi. It’s a matter of embassy suspension,” added the mayor.
The Mayor of Iași emphasized that the law obliges authorities to ensure direct collaboration between twinned cities, and in the absence of this possibility, he will initiate the suspension of the agreement until the ban is lifted.
Mihai Chirica clarified that the decision does not target the citizens of Chisinau. “I hold the people of Chisinau dear, I have many friends there, I love them very much, they should have no hesitation to come and knock on the door of the mayor of Iasi city,” the mayor stated for TVR Moldova.
The context of the tensions is linked to the measure imposed by Romania at the beginning of July, when Ion Ceban and two other citizens from the Republic of Moldova were banned from entering, for reasons of national security. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Toiu, stated that the decision is based on the documentation of some “complicated ties” of the mayor of Chisinau with representatives of the Russian Federation.
In the meantime, Ion Ceban’s lawyers have challenged the measure in Romanian courts, demanding the suspension and revocation of the ban, which they consider to be without legal basis and contrary to fundamental rights.
