Senate defeats two UDMR legislative proposals lodged 16 years ago

The Senate on Tuesday defeated as a decision-making body a legislative proposal on personal autonomy of the Hungarian community of Romania and a legislative proposal on a framework law on personal autonomy of national communities, both pieces of legislation initiated by former MPs of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) in 2004.

The senators voted in favor of defeat reports of the two bills prepared by the Senate Administration Committee in November 2004, 121 to 9.

The two pieces, initiated by former MPs Kovacs Zoltan, Pecsi Ferenc, Szilagyi Zsolt, Toro T. Tibor and Sogor Csaba, had also been defeated in the Chamber of Deputies, as the first notified legislative body, in September 2004.

The first legislative proposal would regulate personal autonomy of the Hungarian community in Romania by creating a legal basis for the establishment of special administrative and territorial authority to manage the problems of the Hungarian community in Romania, which includes preserving and developing national identity.

The legislative proposal on a framework law on personal autonomy of national communities would provide regulations on the establishment of personal autonomy of national communities, according to which a national minority that has maintained close relations with the Romanian state for a long time has the right to establish its own institutions locally and nationally which powers would be established specific of self-government, along with governing bodies, laws and regulations that can be adopted as well as the creation of some administrative-territorial units of a special status.