Romania: new Government set to act in favour of minorities

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Romania: new Government set to act in favour of minorities

Cluj/Kolozsvr/Klausenburg 1/18/2005 , by ron Ball

The beginning of the New Year sees the new Romanian Government starting
out on an ambitious programme. It aims not only to fulfill the
requirements of EU accession and ending corruption, but it also gives hope
for improving the situation of ethnic minorities.

The programme speaks about the development of education in mother tongue
according to need, the setting up of minority language faculties within
state universities, the creation of more development regions in the
context of decentralization, the adopting of a law on minorities and
ratifying the Charter on Regional or Minority Languages. New Prime
Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanus cabinet includes four ethnic Hungarian
ministers out of which one is the Premiers deputy.

When the new Government was voted in by the Parliament on 28th December,
the chief of the non- Hungarian ethnic minority group in the lower house
of the Parliament, Varujan Pambuccian, (leader of the ethnic Armenian
minority), said that the fourteen different ethnic minorities represented
by their group were content with the former Government, but they decided
to support the new one. Also, because it had offered even more ambitious
prospects for collaboration in the field of minority rights.

Bla Mark, President of the ethnic Hungarians umbrella organization in
Romania the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ, UDMR),
became one of the three State Ministers. He has been appointed as
Vice-Prime Minister in charge of co-ordinating the ministries of culture,
education and European integration.

The RMDSZ became a member in the ruling coalition formed by the Truth and
Justice Alliance (DA) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), an alliance
supported in the Parliament by the fourteen MPs from the other ethnic
minorities as well. The DA is the alliance of the National Liberal Party
(PNL) and Democrat Party (PD).

Mark told the press that contributing to Romanias EU accession that was an
"absolute priority" to him. For this, he aims to use his contacts with EU
member Hungary. However, he stressed he was against the rules of free
market economics being applied to culture. "We have to adopt another
approach in culture. Cultural values and creativity have to be defended
from the conditions set by free market economics", he said.

The new governmental programme was designed in order to include elements
of cultural autonomy for minority language speakers, one of the conditions
for which the RMDSZ joined the ruling coalition. RMDSZ promised its voters
in its manifesto to achieve cultural autonomy in the coming four years.

These elements are planned to be codified by a law on minorities according
to Minister of Public Works and Territorial Arrangements Lszl Borbly
(RMDSZ). He is also in charge of infrastructure in general and his
ministry would probably be the one to implement the division of the
country into more development regions than the current ones. This is
important because the RMDSZ was promised by its coalition partners that
the Szeklerland Region would be established, an area inhabited mainly by
ethnic Hungarians. It could be one step towards the territorial and
administrative autonomy for the region.

Minister of Commerce, Gyula Winkler, and Minister of Communication and
Information Technology, Zsolt Nagy, have to deal with more general than
minority issues, but their contribution to the EU accession is important
and their presence at the meetings of the Government, as RMDSZ members, is
also essential when adopting decisions on minorities.

The programme of the new Government is rather favourable for minority
language speakers in the field of education. It guarantees the need to
develop the mother tongue educational network according to the needs of
the different language groups. Textbooks have to be written according to
the local needs of minorities.

The programme also aims to finance church education on all levels,
important because many churches of the minority language speakers have an
important educational activity.

Another Hungarian minority demand is for a 24-hour Hungarian-language
public television and radio, now it has the backing of the new Government.

Not only will a law on minorities be adopted, but also the ratification of
the European Charter of Minority and Regional Languages. The former
Government of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) had promised this twice to
the RMDSZ just to obtain its parliamentary support, but broke its promise.
(Eurolang  2005)

http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4881