The statements of Romania's Prime Minister bring into attention the responsibility of our country's central and local authorities to ensure the observance of the law, and have no ethnic or anti-Hungarian overtones, but highlight in the first place the need to observe Romania's constitutional and legal order in Romania, which is a unitary, sovereign and indivisible state, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday in a release to Agerpres.
The message of the Foreign Ministry comes in the context of Romania's ambassador in Budapest being summoned on Friday to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to offer explanations on PM Tudose's statements.
The Foreign Ministry also details the broader context of the discussions on the tentative autonomy of the Hungarian community of Romania. "We also note that the public debate on this issue occurs in the context of the multiplication, in the last period, of initiatives regarding various forms of territorial autonomy on ethnic criteria, culminating in the signing on January 8 of the Joint Resolution of Hungarian political organizations of Transylvania on the alignment of autonomy concepts," the Foreign Ministry said, pointing out that "these approaches, on a subject that is strictly related to Romania's constitutional order and on which both the political factors as well as Romania's constitutional court have previously pronounced, contribute neither to maintaining a harmonious interethnic coexistence nor to progress in the bilateral relationship."
The Romanian Foreign Ministry concludes that "such gestures are all the more so regrettable as they deliberately ignore the substantial measures adopted over time by the Romanian authorities for the benefit of the members of the Hungarian minority in Romania, in line with the highest relevant protection standards, a commitment that Romania sticks to and will constantly pursue in all its policies."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs discards any such provocation, "particularly in the year when Romania is set to celebrate the Great Union Centennial in a spirit of unity, tolerance and mutual respect among all its citizens, regardless of their ethnicity," the cited source said.
"The Foreign Ministry of Romania expresses its confidence that the political and legal pillars represented by the Basic Political Treaty and the Declaration on Cooperation and Strategic Partnership for Europe in the 21st Century will further provide the foundation for the Romanian-Hungarian relations that will hopefully develop in the spirit of European values," the Foreign Ministry's release states.
The recent remarks by Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose on the ethnic Hungarians' autonomy efforts are completely unacceptable and incompatible with European values and unworthy of the 21st century, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Friday, as cited by MTI.
After a joint statement whereby three political formations of Romania's ethnic Hungarians undertake to put in cooperative efforts for autonomy, Premier Mihai Tudose told Realitatea TV private broadcaster that talks about the autonomy of the Szekely Land are out of question and that "if the Szekler flag is flown on the local institutions they will all fly next to the flag," essentially terming all these as attempts to destabilize Romania's unity in the Centennial year.
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