Lower consular fees for the Romanians living abroad

The government finally takes measures to reduce consular fees for Romanian citizens living and working abroad.

Ştefan Stoica, 08.10.2014, 13:31

The centre-left Government in Bucharest has decided to suspend consular fees for the birth certificates of children born from Romanian parents living abroad if they are issued within six months of the children’s birth. Travel documents for Romanian children up to 6 years of age will also be issued free of charge.

This measure is good, but insufficient, has said the Liberal MP Mircea Dolha, the vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies’ Committee for Romanian Communities Abroad. He says he is now waiting for all consular fees to be reduced and emphasised that the Government only became fully aware of the problems facing the Romanians living abroad after another MP, Aurelian Mihai, went on hunger strike.

Mircea Dolha has called on prime minister Victor Ponta and the minister delegate for the Romanians living abroad, Bogdan Stanoevici, to keep their electoral promise to charge less for consular services, which are too expensive for the Romanians who work abroad. Mircea Dolha has also spoken about what he called “the desperate efforts” of prime minister and presidential candidate Victor Ponta to curry favour with the Romanians living abroad, who have always mainly voted in favour of right-wing candidates in elections. According to Dolha, this attitude cannot compensate for the lack of interest in the problems of the Romanian communities abroad and the lack of initiative of the current government, who have done nothing to support the introduction of the vote-by-mail system and organise proper elections abroad.

At the same time, Mircea Dolha has underlined the constant efforts made by the Christian-Liberal opposition he represents to improve the life of the Romanians living abroad. Neither the government, nor the opposition in Bucharest seem to miss the opportunity to improve their image among the Romanian communities abroad.

Tuesday’s decision to extend the First Home aid programme to include Romanians living and working abroad legally is another measure that the opposition might see as aimed at winning votes. The government has mentioned that extending the First Home and First Car aid schemes to include Romanians from abroad is aimed at encouraging young people to return to their native country and stimulate the purchase and building of new homes.