The dynamics of obtaining compulsory civil liability insurance policies for vehicles, driving licenses, vehicle registration certificates and the number of registered vehicles by citizens of the Republic of Moldova residing in the Transnistrian region

We observe a constantly growing dynamics of residents from the Transnistrian region obtaining national driving license, based on a simplified exchange mechanism available to people living in the region.

According to the data presented by the Public Services Agency, from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2023, 34 396 Moldovan driving licenses have been issued based on this mechanism.

In addition, according to the data from the State Transport Register, from September 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023, 10 019 non-commercial vehicles from the Transnistrian region were documented with neutral license plates at vehicle registration points in the cities of Tiraspol and Râbnița and 17 555 registration certificates were issued.

In the context of ongoing restrictions and Tiraspol’s politicization of primary registration services, only 376 vehicles were registered in 2023, which is 13 times less than the dynamics of registration with neutral numbers compared to 2021, when 4 879 vehicles were registered.

To overcome this situation, Tiraspol should abandon the politicization of technical issues, the enforcement of double registration and the withdrawal of neutral license plates, and begin to harmonize the standards and fiscal and customs requirements applied to vehicles throughout the country.

The mechanism of neutral license plates does not substitute the basic process of registration with national license plates, which is widely used by residents of the region. The access to international road traffic is allowed only with a clear identification of the state of the Republic of Moldova, holding of national driving license and other documents issued by the authorities/national competent institutions.

With regard to the holding of the compulsory internal civil liability insurance policy for vehicles (RCA), we note that in 2022, 1 773 contracts were concluded, which is approximately 8 times less compared to 2018, when 13 854 contracts were concluded.

Following the introduction in 2023 of the obligation to hold the compulsory civil liability insurance policies for vehicles on paper or in electronic format, 4 725 contracts were drawn up in 2023, which is almost 3 times less compared to 2018 when the vehicle registration points in the cities of Tiraspol and Râbnița were opened and 13 854 contracts were drawn up (see: „Specifications regarding the application of fines to certain vehicle drivers from the Transnistrian region” https://gov.md/en/content/specifications-regarding-application-fines-certain-vehicle-drivers-transnistrian-region).

Moreover, with regard to the external RCA policy, in the context of Covid-19 pandemic crisis, as well as the war in Ukraine, we observe a decrease of about 95 times in the number of contracts issued for Zone 1 (Ukraine and Belarus) and Zone 2 (Ukraine, Belarus and Russian Federation), from 22 024 contracts in 2019 for Zone 1 to 222 contracts for the same Zone in 2023.