Romania’s PM Urges Lawmakers To Enact National Minority Statute

Boc also said the statute of national minorities will be in line with European demands and Romanian law.

The legislative priorities of the Government for this year’s first Parliament session include the statute of national minorities, the criminal and civil procedure codes, the pension and national education laws, as well as the fiscal responsibility law and the law creating Local Police.

According to a document obtained by MEDIAFAX, the Government wants the legislative procedures for the enactment of a national minorities statute concluded in the current Parliament session, by the end of June at the latest.

The statute of national minorities was thumbed down in the Senate and has been pending debates in the Chamber of Deputies for about three years.

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania leader Marko Bela, who is also the country’s deputy prime minister, told MEDIAFAX recently the national minority law was included among the Government’s priorities.

Marko said his party wants the national minority law, as well as the education law, to allow ethnic minorities to take part in the decisional process within public institutions.

Marko also said decentralization and autonomy based on ethnic criteria are not antagonistic principles, adding decentralization at a national level is necessary.

The Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania vice-president Laszlo Borbely said Monday the leaders of democrat liberals, the Hungarian minority party, national minorities and independent lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies will hold a meeting to draw up the calendar to debate the law regulating the statute of national minorities so that it can be finished as soon as possible.