In the aftermath of the Eastern Partnership

Romanias President Klaus Iohannis has attended the Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels, where he encouraged the continuation of a solid EU policy in the eastern neighbourhood

Mihai Pelin, 27.11.2017, 14:05

Late last week, Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis attended in Brussels the Eastern Partnership Summit, devoted to the EU’s relations with states in the eastern neighborhood and the Caucasus. At the summit, Klaus Iohannis said that the EU must keep supporting in a consistent manner the six Eastern Partnership members’ modernization and reform efforts. He stressed the fact that it’s not enough for the EU to call on the partners to implement reforms, without providing in its turn support to that end.

In Brussels, the Romanian head of state also had bilateral meetings with the Moldovan Prime Minister Pavel Filip and with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Porosenko. Moldova’s European integration efforts and the issue of education for Romanian ethnics in Ukraine were the main topics approached during the talks.

President Klaus Iohannis: “Reforms continue. Of course, there is much left to be done, but we have seen improvement, which gives us confidence that the Republic of Moldova really wants to focus on and pursue European integration. We are helping at various levels, including by means of concrete measures, such as the financial aid granted by the Romanian state to the Republic of Moldova.”

During the meeting with president Petro Porosenko, the talks focused on education in the Romanian language in the neighboring country, and the Romanian head of state said that solutions could be found to properly settle the issue.

President Klaus Iohannis once again: “I told president Petro Porosenko that the matter is of utmost importance to us and a solution must be found. He promised he would take into account all the recommendations made by the Venice Commission with regard to changing the relevant legislation. The second request I made was to include us and representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine in the consultations on the changes regarding education in the Romanian language in Ukraine.”

Endorsed by the Ukrainian Parliament in September, the new education law restricts national minorities’ rights with regard to education in their mother tongues. According to the new law, classes are taught in Ukrainian in secondary school, high-school and higher education institutions, and education in minority languages is only allowed in kinder gardens and primary schools. Besides Klaus Iohannis, who, because of the law, cancelled his visit to Kiev, the new law has been criticized by the Romanian parliament, government and foreign ministry, as well as by the representatives of the half a million ethnic Romanians living in Ukraine.