Enhancing Minority Governance in Romania *
The 'Enhancing Minority Governance in Romania' project at ECMI, which began in November 2004, is aimed at promoting a cordial relationship between the Romanian majority and its minority groups, as well as within these minority groups. It will also endeavour to clarify the status of national minorities under Romanian law.
Romania, a country of 22.2 million inhabitants, is the home to many different minority groups, these being: Albanian, Armenian, Bulgarian, Czech, Croat, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Jewish, Macedonian, Polish, Roma, Russian-Lippovan, Ruthenian, Serbian, Slovak, Tartar, Turkish and Ukrainian.
The purpose of the project is to reduce tensions among these groups and to establish standards of good minority governance in Romania. The project itself has two clear and immediate objectives:
- To support the efforts of the Romanian government and representatives of national minorities to write a law on national minorities to be presented to the Romanian parliament during 2005.
- To capacity build the Romanian Department of Inter-Ethnic Relations' legal unit to monitor Romania's minority rights commitments.
This project will improve inter-ethnic understanding and acceptance through the clarification of the legal status of national minorities, improve stakeholder involvement in the drafting of the new law on national minorities and enhance the awareness of the main political parties in parliament of national minority issues.
Through the law on national minorities (that the project helped to create and is now helping to enact) the minority groups within Romania will have a tool by which to settle a decade old tension laden discussion on status and rights. They will in addition be assured of their social and political inclusion in the future.
For further information on this project, please see the website at:
http://www.ecmiromania.org
Action-oriented Projects
Kosovo projects
Georgia projects
Romani Expert Groups for Romani Integration *
Moldova Project *
Enhancing Minority Governance in Romania *
Enhancing Minority Governance in Bulgaria *
Serbia and Montenegro project *
Establishment & Maintenance of Minor. Ombudsman Institutions *
ECMI Macedonia Projects*
Ohrid Agreement Implementation*
The Montenegro Negotiation and Capacity-Building Project*
Power-Sharing in Bosnia-Herzegovina*
Forced Migrants in Kaliningrad*
EU Accession and National Integration in Estonia and Latvia*
