CHISINAU, December 9 Romania welcomes amendments to Ukrainian legislation on national minorities, said the head of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Luminita Odobescu, on social networks.
Earlier on Friday, Odobescu held political and diplomatic consultations with the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, Olga Stefanishina, as part of her visit to Bucharest. The topic of discussion was focused mainly on Ukraine’s European agenda in the context of preparations for the European Council meeting scheduled for December 14-15, 2023.
“I welcome Ukraine’s amendments to legislation related to national minorities — this is a positive step forward. Romania will continue to promote a transparent and constructive approach to this issue,” Odobescu wrote on her page on the social network X.
Romania does not recognize the existence of the Moldovan ethnic group, classifying Moldovans as a single Romanian nation; therefore, Bucharest also considers ethnic Moldovans living on the territory of Ukraine to be Romanians. Romania also does not recognize the existence of the Moldovan language, considering it a dialect of Romanian. In March, the Moldovan parliament, with the votes of the ruling Action and Solidarity party, approved the renaming of the state language from Moldavian to Romanian. According to the approved bill, the words “Moldavian language” in any grammatical form are replaced by the phrase “Romanian language”. Moreover, the amendment has even been introduced into the constitution, although this usually requires a referendum.
At the end of last year, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law on national minorities. It guarantees representatives of national minorities a number of rights and freedoms, including the use of their language “within limits not contrary to the law.”
At the same time, the norms of the Ukrainian law on national minorities will not apply to Russian speakers. The document spells out a ban on “popularization and propaganda” of Russia. In July 2021, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that Russians as a separate national group do not exist in Ukraine. According to the court ruling, “Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine do not represent an integral social unit as a group entitled to legal protection as an ethnic or linguistic unit, but are a political construct.”