European Parliament adopts resolution on commemoration of 1989 Romanian Revolution

The European Parliament has adopted on Thursday by 513 votes in favour, 18 against and 87 abstentions a resolution on the commemoration of 30 years since the Romanian Revolution of December 1989. 

A debate on this topic took place on Monday evening, when representative of the European Commission and European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valan said before the MEPs that the Romanian Revolution was the last act of the revolt movements in Eastern Europe and the bloodiest, and that Romanians fought that winter for freedom, fundamental rights and democracy. 

Through the resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament calls on the Romanian state to strengthen its efforts to clarify the truth in relation to the events of the Revolution of December 1989 and also calls on the institutions of the European Union and its Member States, including Romania, to do their utmost to ensure that the crimes of communist regimes are remembered, and to guarantee that such crimes will never be committed again. 

The Romanian revolution of December 1989 was the most violent of all the uprisings leading to the fall of communism in the states behind the Iron Curtain and resulted in the loss of 1,142 lives, 3,138 people being gravely injured, and over 760 individuals being illegally detained and tortured. Moreover, the use of force against the Romanian people in December 1989 painfully shook all of Romanian society to the core, and the identification of the actual perpetrators of these crimes remains an agonising unresolved issue for the victims, their families and for all Romanian citizens, the text brings to mind. 

In the document, which was drafted by numerous Romanian and foreign MEPs belonging to the European People's Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and the Renew Europe, the Romanian state is reproached that it has unnecessarily delayed the process of clarifying the truth and making it publicly available, which is paramount to guaranteeing the right of the victims and their heirs to equitable compensation and reparation; whereas the national authorities have failed to act with the necessary due diligence imposed by international human rights norms. 

According to the text of the resolution, the European Parliament commemorates and hereby pays homage to the victims of the December 1989 Revolution, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of ending the totalitarian dictatorship in Romania, and to their families and acknowledges that the sacrifice of the peaceful protesters of December 1989 paved the way for Romania's transition towards democracy, the rule of law and the establishment of a market economy, as well as its subsequent integration into the North-Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.