Zelenski, a duplicitous president, says one thing, does another. Ukraine does not protect the Romanian minority according to European standards

By RBJ
The Romanian press reacts to the duplicitous attitude of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenski, who promulgated the law on national minorities in Ukraine. A law that was harshly criticized by the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier in December.
According to the last population census of Ukraine, conducted in 2001, representatives of national minorities represented 22.18% of the country’s population. The largest ethnic group were Russians, who represented 17.3% of the total population of Ukraine, followed by Romanians, an ethnic group with almost 1 million people.
Why did the Romanian government criticize the law of national minorities in Ukraine?
In a press release on December 22, the Minister of Foreign Affairs (MAE) from Bucharest announced that he sent his Ukrainian counterpart an extremely critical analysis after the adoption of this law, considering it “regrettable” that the normative act was adopted without consulting the Commission of in Venice and of the Romanian community in Ukraine.
The MFA noted at the time that the new law represents an improved version compared to the previous drafts analyzed at the level of the Ukrainian legislature, but that “provisions persist that may have a negative impact, by reference to European standards.”
These are:
– the opinions of the Venice Commission from the perspective of the right to education are not respected;
– unclear language remains regarding the monitoring duties of the central authority in charge of implementing state policy in the field of national minorities in relation to the activities of civic associations of national minorities;
– there is no provision regarding the use of the mother tongue in the relationship with the judicial authority;
-uncertainties persist regarding the concrete application of the provisions regarding the use of minority languages in the administration, in areas traditionally inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities and at their request, as well as those that regulate that information of general interest is dubbed in the language of the national minority (the community ) by a decision of the village, communal, city councils;
– the right to manifest one’s religion or belief does not benefit, further, from a distinct provision, being included only in the article relating to the right to freedom of expression;
– while the establishment of an advisory body within the central executive body aimed at ensuring the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of protection of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities appears as a positive measure, there remains a lack of clarity on how to decide which organization is representative for a minority when, for example, there are several associations established within the same national minority;
– the problem of providing financial resources for the translation of information related to artistic and cultural events is not clarified, when it is necessary to ensure the translation into the state language;
– the issue of the lack of funding for representative associations of national minorities remains, with only the possibility of punctual funding based on projects and on a competitive basis, within the limits of the budget allocated annually for this purpose.
– The MFA claimed in the press release that it will continue the dialogue with the Ukrainian side, reminding at the same time that Romania’s proposal to conclude a Comprehensive Agreement on the protection of the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian communities in Ukraine and Ukrainian communities in Romania with an emphasis on linguistic rights was agreed in principle at bilateral level since last year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest noted, however, that because of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the dialogue on the matter was made difficult and slowed down considerably.
What Zelenski promised in the speech in the Romanian Parliament
On April 4, 2022, Volodimir Zelenski promised, in the speech in the Parliament in Bucharest, the opening of a dialogue with Romania regarding the protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. He thanked the Romanians for the help they gave to the Ukrainians.
“The mutual support and respect of our peoples is a basis for greater rapprochement. When the situation allows, I want to start a dialogue with Romania to allow the full protection of the Romanian minority in Ukraine, to ensure full support. Our future is together,” Zelensky said.