February 2006

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GYÖRGY FRUNDA, CENSURED BY ROMANIAN POLITICIANS FOR HIS TASK IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

February 2006 – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted last January a recommendation on the concept of nation to be approved by the Council of Ministers. The recommendation was based on a proposal presented by György Frunda, leader of the Romanian delegation in the PACE and member of the Romanian parliament representing PAHR, the party of the Hungarian minority in coalition on government.

The Assembly recommended the Committee of Ministers to invite the member states not yet having done so to sign and ratify the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities and the European Charter for regional or minority languages, among other legal instruments. According to the recommendation, the members of the Council of Europe should foster in their internal instruments the recognition of the cultural rights of the minorities, take the appropriate measures in order to make sure that the member states reject any attempt to promote the ethnic purity of the state or to organise the territory and the administration of the state on an ethnic basis and bring into line their constitutions with the contemporary democratic European standards which call on each state to integrate all its citizens, irrespective of their ethno-cultural background.

The adoption of such a recommendation by the PACE has sparked controversy among the Romanian politicians, most of whom have sided against György Frunda.

Mircea Geoana, leader of the opposition group, the Social Democrat Party (PSD), has declared that the concept of nation put forward by Frunda is against the Romanian constitution and consequently Frunda should be dismissed as the head of the Romanian delegation. Nicolae Popa, vice-president of the Conservative Party, has provoked controversy with his statement that Frunda is dangerous for Romanian national interests and his suggestion that the PAHR MP should leave the country and settle in Hungary.

The recommendations, though, are not legally binding in Romania until the Council of Ministers approves them.