Nine years after the EU accession there is still no minority protection framework in Romania

2016-02-03

Romania is yet to adopt the minority protection law approved by the government in 2005, before the EU accession – pointed out Csaba Sógor during the Wednesday afternoon plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. 


The RMDSZ MEP voiced his opinion in relation to the 2015 report on Serbia's accession process to the EU. In the opinion of Csaba Sógor the goal during the accession negotiations with the country should be to establish a permanent minority protection mechanism in the Vojvodina province. According to Csaba Sógor the example of Kosovo shows us what terrible consequences it can have if a state does not address the needs of an autochthonous minority community. 

Sógor stated in the EP plenary: experience shows that after becoming a Member State the achievements in majority-minority relations start to regress, as it has happened in the case of Romania and Slovakia. For this reason, the RMDSZ MEP thinks it important that the commitments of the candidate states regarding minority laws be met before the accession. As an example, he mentioned that Romania is yet to adopt the minority protection law approved by its government in 2005, two years before the accession, and the EU has no power to ask for this.