MEP Diaconu sends open letter to Romania's President, Gov't on rights of Romanians from Diaspora

The Romanian Member of the European Parliament Mircea Diaconu (Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) asks in an open letter to Romania's President and Government their involvement in solving the problems on the violation of the rights of the Romanians from abroad. 

Presenting some of the aspects pointed out by the participants in a public haring recently hosted at the European Parliament, referring to the rights of the Romanians living in Serbia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, the Republic of Moldova, Albania, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Mircea Diaconu, Vice Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Culture and Education, calls on the Romanian authorities, on behalf of the Romanian historical communities from abroad, to react in order to put a stop to the phenomena of alienation and forced assimilation of these communities and the deterioration of their culture, language and history elements. 

During the public hearing called "Romania and Historical Regions: Culture, Identity, European Values" that took place at the European Parliament on 5 September 2018, among other things were brought to mind the assaults of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) upon the "Eudoxiu Hurmuzachi" Romanian Cultural Centre in Cernauti, the ban of the Romanians' right from the Serbian Timoc Valley to their own language, culture and religion, the failure to recognize as a national minority the 160,000 Romanians of Bulgaria and of the Macedo-Romanians of Greece, the recent ban on entry on the territory of the Republic of Moldova of a rather large number of citizens of Romania and Moldova who were heading for Chisinau with the goal to peacefully celebrate the Greater Union Centennial, which represented a serious violation of the cooperation agreement in the visa field between the European Union and Moldova. 

The conclusion of the voiced evidence is that although Romania's policy as regards the protection of the rights of the minorities living on its territory is recognised as one of the most advanced in Europe, the Romanian communities abroad do not benefit unfortunately from the same treatment, but from a continuously degrading one, the letter made public on Wednesday reads. 

The Romanian MEP specifies that the authorities' steps in view of preventing such situations must be taken coherently by Romania, as a EU member state, with all the relevant rights and all the authority conferred by this quality. 

"Unfortunately, we all are guilty for reaching this point, due to too many concessions - some justified, perhaps, yet still concessions - that in this century, in this European Year of the Cultural Heritage and on this Centennial Year, there is something called "the guilt of being Romanian", a guilt that is only treated through "the courage to be Romanian" of those who live abroad, yet not that far from Romania," Mircea Diaconu says in his open letter.