The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek will visit Moldova from 13 to 16 March 2012. His visit focuses on issues of integration, education, language and Gagauz autonomy.
Vollebaek will specifically discuss the Government's strategy for the integration of national minorities and assess progress on multilingual education, as well as co-operation between Chişinău and Tiraspol on education-related matters. He will also meet the central authorities in Chişinău and the Gagauz leadership in Comrat to discuss the current situation of the Gagauz autonomy.
The High Commissioner will hold meetings with Acting president Marian Lupu, Prime Minister Vlad Filat and other senior representatives of the Government and state institutions and civil society organizations in Chişinău, and Comrat. In Tiraspol, he will meet Transdniestrian leader Yevgeny Shevchuk and other officials as well as civil society representatives. He will also visit Moldovan-administered schools on the left bank of the Dniestr/Nistru River and the Gaidarzhy Lyceum in Gagauzia.
