Csaba Sógor: The report of the Council of Europe on Romania needs to have consequences
The report on the application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of the Council of Europe evaluating Romania needs to have consequences. There is no doubt this member state severely violates its commitments on minority protection, undertaken at the time of EU accession - said Csaba Sógor during the miniplenary session in Brussels.
On the debate about the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union MEP Csaba Sógor welcomed the fact that the 2016 report deals with the situation of ethnic minorities - as also requested in previous years. However, the MEP resents that there are no common standards that aim to protect minorities. “Relegating this competence to the national sphere means that the situation of such minorities varies extremely in our shared area of freedom security and justice: from almost full equality to denied existence” - said the MEP.
The MEP explained how the Fourth Council of Europe Opinion on the application in Romania of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities, published a week ago, clearly illustrates this unfortunate situation: “The expert opinion expresses strong concerns in matters such a hate speech against minorities, difficulties of education in mother tongue, the obstruction of the restitution process of properties stolen by the communist regime, the prohibition of the use of national symbols and so on.”
“The issues raised in the document reflect the truth that we have also been calling the attention to several times in the plenary sessions in the past 10 years. The report of the Council of Europe proves the fact that Romania has not solved the problems of national minorities yet and the country cannot be considered exemplary in enforcement of minority rights” - stressed Csaba Sógor, according to whom it is time the EU institutions put national minority issues on their agenda.
