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U.S. English Foundation Research ROMANIA
Language Research5. Costs: What does it cost in terms of money, time and government resources to police the country's language restrictions?Updated (November 2002) MONEY FOR MINORITIES' TEXTBOOKS The Romanian Ministry of Public Information (MIP) allotted Lei 1 billion (some $31,000) to finance editing of high school textbooks for pupils who study in their mother tongue. The announcement was made by the Minister Dincu at a session of the Education Board of National Minorities Council. The representatives of the county inspectorates complained about stiffness of the educational system, reluctant to accept new teaching methods. Source: Minelres Archive, No. 5; April 29, 2002; Sibiu DISCRIMINATION OF ETHNIC ROMANIANS IN BULGARIA The Romanian Public Information Ministry protested against persecution of the members of the Romanian-Vlach minority in Bulgaria, after a priest in a village near Vidin was disciplined by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for using Romanian in the services. According to the Ministry, the measure is an infringement of the Convention on the Defense of Minority Rights, ratified by the Bulgarian parliament in 1994. Bucharest said that though the Romanian-Vlach minority is Bulgaria's second largest, it is not recognized by the authorities and represented in the parliament. None of 32 localities where Romanian-Vlachs live has Romanian-language schools. In contrast, the Bulgarian minority in Romania is represented in the legislature, has four schools teaching in Bulgarian, and the Bulgarian language is also taught at Bucharest University. The Romanian government finally reminded Sofia that current international treaties on minority rights stipulate reciprocity. Source: Minelres Archive, September 30, 2002 ETHNIC MINORITIES TO BE GRANTED MORE MONEY FROM THE BUDGET The Budget, Finance and Banking Commissions within the Romanian Parliament on October 29, passed an initiative to supplement the budget for ethnic minorities with the amount ROL 40 billion (some $1.2 million). Initially, the Romanian government allotted a different sum, which was reasoned by the need to implement adequately the programs meant to support the language and traditional values of the ethnic minorities. Last year the ethnic minorities received ROL 54 b. from the state budget. Source: Minelres Archive, No. 30, November 4, 2002, Bucharest
Updated (February 2004) THE HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT PLANS TO SPEND NEARLY 4 MILLION EUROS ON SETTING UP TRANSYLVANIAN HUNGARIAN TV IN ROMANIA The Hungarian Government is expected to spend around 1 billion Hungarian Forints (around Euros 3,846,000) on setting up a Hungarian-language television in Romania. Currently, only some public and commercial TV stations broadcast a few programs in minority languages. At the same time as the Hungarian Minister of Finances, Tibor Draskovics, announced his plan for financial austerity, Zsolt Nagy, a chief of the Janovics Jenõ Foundation, which is in charge of setting up the Transylvanian Hungarian TV station, called on the government not to reduce the planned funding for it. When the Hungarian Prime Minister, Péter Medgyessy, came up with the TV idea in November 2003, he hoped it could begin broadcasting by mid-2004. However, this is unlikely to happen and functioning of the station will have to be postponed until the second half of the year. Source: Eurolang News, Kolozsvár/Cluj, February 19, 2004, by Áron Balló, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4424 Updated (March 2004) THE GOVERNMENT HAS ALLOCATED SOME 8 MILLION USD TO ETHNIC MINORITIES The government has passed a grant of ROL 255 billion (app. USD 7.9 million) to support 19 organizations of the ethnic minorities living in Romania. The money should cover expenses connected with activities of the organizations' headquarters and subsidiaries, as well as with maintenance and repairs, personnel expenses, press, books, school textbooks and publications and expenses of cultural organizations. Another amount of ROL 15 billion has been allocated from the state budget to finance the interethnic programs and projects and the programs fighting against intolerance. Source: Minelres News, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-March/003241.html, Divers Bulletin No. 8 (91), March 8, 2004 Updated (May 2004) HUNGARY TO FINANCE MINORITY TV IN ROMANIA The Hungarian Information Technology Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office have set aside some Euro 1.2 million to launch a new Hungarian-language television channel in Transylvania. "Karpatia Television" will need Euro 1.9 million in total for its operation. Programming will reportedly be produced and edited exclusively in Romania by ethnic Hungarians. Both Hungarian and Romanian politicians have suggested that the new station will espouse the views of the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania. The Hungarian-language satellite channel "Duna Television" is generally regarded to sympathize with the views of right-wing Hungarian political parties and groupings in both Hungary and Transylvania. Source: Divers Bulletin No. 10 (93), March 22, 2004, Budapest, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-March/003265.html Updated (June 2007) A DRAFT BILL MAY GIVE A HUNGARIAN-MEDIUM UNIVERSITY OFFICIAL RECOGNITION
At present, the Hungarian minority in Romania have no accredited Hungarian-medium university recognized by the state. Hungarian-speaking students can attend the non-accredited Christian University of Partium (PKM) in Nagyvárad (Oradea), financed by the Hungarian foundation "Pro Universitate Partium".
However, the Romanian government just recently has agreed to accept a draft bill to give the PKM state recognition. Further, they have agreed to make it part of the National Education Institution and to give state accreditation.
The Romanian Parliament will vote on the bill in the autumn. If the bill is passed, the state will help finance the university and the university will be able to participate in EU programs.
Source: Eurolang News, June 11, 2007 by Marianne Tharan-Trieb http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2895&Itemid=1&lang=en Updated (August 2007) A NEW RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MINORITIES HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED The Government has recently approved the establishment of a special institute – the Institute for the Study of the National Minorities' Problems – that will function as a public institution with legal framework based in the town of Cluj. The Institute will carry out surveys and conduct researches on demographic tendencies and migration. It will also analyze linguistic, sociological, historical, cultural issues and will give advice in development of efficient and appropriate policies. Furthermore, its task will be organization of conferences and seminars on minority–related topics. Source: Divers, News Bulletin No. 30, August 16, 2007 http://www.divers.ro/actualitate_en?wid=37647&func=viewSubmission&sid=7628 and Eurolang News, August 4, 2007 by Judit Solymosi http://www.eurolang.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2932&Itemid=1&lang=en
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