Romania’s Govt Approves Decree To Set Up Citizenship Special Agency

Romania's President Traian Basescu said Wednesday, during an official visit to Chisinau, the country's Government will issue a decree to set up a special agency granting Romanian citizenship to those who lost it.

"The Government will issue a normative act Friday to set up a special agency granting Romanian citizenship to those who lost it," Basescu said a after a meeting with Moldovan interim President Mihai Ghimpu.

Basescu said the agency will have its headquarters in Bucharest with five branches in Iasi, Galati, Suceava, Cluj and Timisoara.

Talking about delays in granting Romanian citizenship, Basescu said the law amended last year stipulates citizenship should be granted within five months, adding never were there registered delays in granting citizenship if applications were in order and complete.

The Romanian president said the Foreign Ministry pledged to get to the bottom of the unsolved files submitted before the law was amended.

The Moldovan Liberal Party urged Moldovan citizens who want to regain their Romanian citizenship to address directly to the Romanian presidency and criticized the "hypocrisy of the Romanian civil servants".

Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca said on Radio France Internationale Romania that the Republic of Moldova's main request concerns granting Romanian citizenship to Moldovan citizens, adding the law must be amended, as Romania offers citizenship only to people who live on its territory.

Chirtoaca said the procedures to obtain Romanian citizenship are still very exhausting, adding the mechanism must be drastically simplified.

Talks on simplifying the law granting Romanian citizenship to Moldovans began in 2006. Procedures were simplified in April 2009, following events taking place after Moldovan parliament elections. The new law on granting citizenship was promulgated by Basescu on November 11, 2009, during the presidential election campaign.

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