August 2004

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MPs OF NATIONAL MINORITIES ASK FOR A MINORITY LAW IN ROMANIA (Divers Bulletin)

August 2004 — Representatives of national minorities in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies proposed the enactment of a special law on national minorities. The aim of this law would be to define the statute of these minorities and the concept of ethnic minority, and to recognise them. Moreover, the law is also aimed at defining the meaning and role of the Council of National Minorities of Romania, a body set up in 1993 functioning as a consultative body of the Government in co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Information after a governmental decision of 2001. Parliamentarians also drew an alarm signal for the education in the mother tongue, stressing the need of ensuring teachers for the schools with a reduced number of children. In accordance with the information published in Divers Bulletin no. 28(111), in Romania there are 19 ethnic minorities officially recognised, and 18 of them with one representative in the Parliament. According to the same sources, MP Varujan Pambuccian, representative of the Armenian minority in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, said that “this law would give a clear statute to our organization”.