The Europeanisation of the Transnistrian Conflict. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 73, 1 May 2005

[From the Introduction]. To describe the Transnistrian conflict as ‘frozen’ is becoming less and less appropriate. Although the conflict remains unresolved, there have been a number of significant and at times dramatic developments in recent years, both in the diplomatic efforts to negotiate a settlement, and in the underlying geopolitical alignments and political and economic structures sustaining the conflict. It is argued here that these changes are primarily because of the European Union. To begin with, the role of the EU was mainly reactive and of limited importance. It was thus more a case of Europeanisation rather than ‘EU-isation’, owing more to the EU’s growing ‘presence’ in the wider region rather than the EU as an actor engaging more in the Transnistrian conflict as such. But over the last two years, the EU has increasingly become directly involved