Romania Slams Ukraine for Newly Adopted Law on Minorities

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considers “regrettable” the fact that the new law on national minorities in Ukraine was passed in the absence of consultations with the Venice Commission. In the Romanian officials’ view, the opinion of the Venice Commission would have contributed to ensuring a comprehensive and clear text from the perspective of the European legal standards in the matter.

Romania is not satisfied with how the Romanian minority is treated in Ukraine, and this idea is a major topic on the bilateral diplomatic and political agenda between the two states.

It is regrettable that the law was passed in the absence of an adequate consultation of the representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine, as requested by the Romanian side.

Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Also, MAE emphasizes that it has repeatedly requested the Ukrainian side to thoroughly consult the Romanian community in Ukraine in the process of drafting and adopting the law. Even though all the Ukrainian diplomats promised to do so when they came to Bucharest, in Kyiv things are viewed in a very different manner. One piece of evidence that Ukraine and Romania see things differently is that the Ukrainian president proved to have some very strange views on history.

In January 2020, Zelensky said, during his speech on the occasion of the Day of the Union of Ukraine, that “…most of the territory of Galicia was occupied by Polish troops. Romanians occupied Northern Bukovyna, and Czechoslovakia occupied Zakarpattia.” This version was later “improved,” and the English translation of the speech replaced “occupied” with “taken”, after Romania’s official protest.

If the very president, now an international hero, as seen by some, understands history like this, there is no hope for the Romanians living in Ukraine. Peace, whenever it comes, should also clarify certain legislative aspects of the way minorities are treated in Ukraine, disregarding their nationality. According to statistics, around 400,000 Romanians lived in Ukraine before the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

It is expected that this topic to be a very hot one when it comes to possible negotiations for Ukraine to join any of the European or Euro-Atlantic structures.