Colleagues of the British Embassy visited Harghita County Council

On 15^th of May, two colleagues of the British Embassy in Romania, Mr. Peter Thomas, Head of the Political Section (serving in Romania from June 2009 to June 2014) and Mr. Pompiliu Tamaș, paid a visit to Harghita County Council. The guests were interested in the situation and circumstances of Harghita County and accordingly met with Mr. Csaba Borboly, president of Harghita County Council. Among the themes of the meeting, the local preparations for the European Parliament elections, the Romanian-Hungarian relations, as well as the dual citizenship were under discussion.  The county council president told them that as the president of the local territorial organization of DAHR, he tries to motivate local people to be active voters, since if there is not an adequate representation either in Bucharest or in Brussels, then regulations unfavourable for the local community can be born more easily, as well as previous decisions, positively affecting the local Hungarian minority can be withdrawn, too. For example, in this regard he mentioned the case of the Hungarian faculty of the Medicine and Pharmacy University of Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely).

Mr. Csaba Borboly also mentioned the local Romanian-Hungarian relation, emphasizing that Harghita County Council endeavours to establish such a collaboration which first of all serves the local population of Harghita County. He presented the survey ordered by the county council which reveals that in 90 % of the problems of the Romanian and also of the Hungarian population are similar, thus through establishing a dialogue, common solutions should be seek for. That is the reason why the county council is the initiator for elaborating a codex of good coexistence. Besides, the survey also revealed the fact that the majority of both ‘groups’ blame the nationalist politicians of Bucharest and the central Romanian media for the ethnical conflict.

The county council president expressed his hope that in the future the practice for establishing the good coexistence will be a best practice for other counties who are in similar situation, too. Furthermore, Mr. Borboly also spoke about the deficiencies of the Romanian legal framework, calling the guests’ attention to the fact that according to the politics and justice which is not mentioned in the law it is then prohibited. For this peculiar reason, the court of law did not supported Harghita County Council in such issues as establishing collaboration with the Sapientia University or even regarding the decision on the county flag.  The principle of local autonomy is not taken into account, even if Romania signed the European Charter of Local Self-Government.

According to the county council president, through the dual citizenship whole Europe may benefit. As a positive thing to mention, the Romanian authorities did not intervene with any obstacles during the procedures for requiring and obtaining the Hungarian citizenship.

At the end of the meeting, the colleagues of the British Embassy could get an insight into the projects of Harghita County Council, Mr. Csaba Borboly offering them a background material about all discussed, as well as a well-illustrated book about Ciuc region.

Miercurea Ciuc, 15^th of May 2014.