Minority-friendly legislative proposals under fire in Romania?

According to Mikó Imre Minority Rights Legal Aids Service, two legislative proposals containing minority-friendly provisions have recently been passed in the Romanian Parliament, both waiting to be officially signed by President Klaus Iohannis.

One concerns an amendment to the 2011 Law on Education, which stipulates that a linguistic minority must be consulted whenever the issue of establishing, re-organising or closing an educational institution of that linguistic community is raised.

This amendment is especially welcome by the Hungarian community in Romania, since it would preempt situations like the one of the Catholic school in Tîrgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely, the fate of which is still uncertain.

However, the President has so far refused to promulgate the law, invoking a few passages in the text of the law that are ambiguous, according to Iohannis, including the term “linguistic minority”.

We find it regrettable that the President, himself a member of a linguistic minority, namely the German/Sachsen community in Romania, would use his power to block a piece of legislation that would be beneficial to all minority communities in Romania.