-
1
Strenghtening Cooperation on the Romanian Minority Issue in
Post-Euromaidan Ukraine
Autori: Dragos Dinu, Octavian Milevski
Proiectul Forumul civic Romnia Ucraina a fost finanat prin
Programul Asisten oficial pentru Dezvoltare al Romniei i
implementat n parteneriat cu UNDP Bratislava. Opiniile exprimate n
acest raport nu reprezint poziia oficial a partenerilor acestui
proiect.
-
2
Table of contents
1. Introduction
....................................................................................................................
3 2. Realities on the ground
...................................................................................................
5
2.1 Romanian and Moldovan? A question of de-archaizing
........................................... 6
2.2 The Language Law in Ukraine and its consequences
................................................ 8
2.3 The policy of acquiring citizenship/Romanian citizenship law
............................... 11 3. Conclusions and
recommendations
..............................................................................
15
-
3
1. Introduction This policy brief is prepared in the framework
of the Second edition of the Romanian
Ukrainian civil society Forum. The project is financed by the
Romanian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs through the Official Development Assistance,
supported by UNDP and
implemented in partnership by Romanian Centre for European
Policies (CRPE) and
Institute of World Policy (IWP). The topic of minority rights
and associated Ukrainian
policy on minorities generated interesting debates and
discussions during the Civic
Forum in Kiev earlier this year. We took note of the different
approaches and
perceptions of the Romanian and Ukrainian participants on this
matter and decided that
we would prepare a policy brief to provide additional details on
the main ideas
expressed during the Forum. This report should be analyzed in a
wider perspective, as it
complements the other two policy memos1 prepared in the
project.
The bilateral Romanian-Ukrainian agenda has been suffering from
a mutual
understanding delay for over twenty years. During the past two
decades, the two
neighbouring countries have hardly moved into the direction of
each others interests
and towards common foreign policy objectives that could have
been formulated for this
region. The issue of minorities remained one of the main
stumbling blocks in the way of
a dynamic, mutually rewarding and comprehensive friendly
relationship between the
two Central East-European countries.
In Romania, whether we refer to the state officials, the media,
or a considerable part of
the intellectual sphere, the minorities issue still raises
concerns. However, it should be
noted that this is not necessarily derived from well informed
accounts on the ground. At
the same time, in Ukraine, the issue of the Romanian minority is
often seen through the
lens of the Russian minority, the largest in the country, which
is also an exaggeration
and unnecessary over-politicization of the issue, as the
problems of the Ukrainian
1 Change in Kiev The need for a reset for the Romanian Ukrainian
relation Experts proposals for a renewed bilateral agenda, Cristian
Ghinea, Bianca Toma; A call for the EU Time to Step in - Ukraine
expectations from the European Union, Alyona Getmanchuk, Sergiy
Solodkyy
-
4
Romanians are not necessarily identical with those of the
Russian minority.
After several attempts to get over this lasting issue during the
last two decades, the
countries seem closer to the initial starting point rather than
registering substantial
progress in reaching a sustainable solution on the matter. As a
consequence, this
creates serious barriers to the normalization and development of
bilateral relations. As
CRPE noted in a different report2, it is now time for a reset in
the Romanian- Ukrainian
relation. Yet, on the practical and social level, the issue of
the Romanian (speaking)
minority pertains more to the capacity to implement the legal
norms both internally and
internationally, than to the alleged lack of will to meet each
countrys concerns. What is
striking in this respect, is the reality on the ground in
Ukraine wherein the minority
language often becomes an issue around election time, when
various political actors try
to broker on the language marker for the sake of acquiring more
votes, while the
population continues to live in the same multi-linguistic
reality for decades without
many (if any) fears of assimilation or cultural extinction.
The events which started in late November 2013, also known as
EuroMaidan, have
stirred the hope for a radical reformation of the Ukrainian
state, a regeneration of the
normative pillars of the society, and creation of a constructive
climate within the
country. One of the mainstays of the positive social climate has
been the linguistic policy
in Ukraine, which is one of the most ethnically diverse
countries of Europe. According to
the re-adopted 2004 constitution, a modified version of the 1996
constitution, Ukrainian
is the only state language of the country. This is not a problem
in itself as long as there
are legal regimes for use of the languages of the minorities on
the local level. The recent
attempt (dated 23rd of February) of the Ukrainian Rada to repeal
the law that granted
minority languages the statute of official languages in local
administration, if the
minority constituted more than 10% of the population, has
stirred debates, although it
was immediately vetoed by the interim President of Ukraine,
Aleksandr Turcinov. Some
Romanian officials have rushed to issue statements condemning
the changes and
2 Ghinea, Toma, op cit
-
5
summoning Ukrainian authorities to reinstate the linguistic
rights of the Romanian
minority, albeit Romania does not grant the same right to
Ukrainian minorities living on
its territory, and in fact to any of the ethnic minorities in
Romania.
In the meantime, a legislative proposal is being processed in
the Romanian Parliament
regarding a simplified procedure for the attainment of Romanian
citizenship for
Romanian ethnics abroad. Given that 2014 is an electoral year in
Romania, we might
suspect that we are dealing with a politicization of the issue
of minorities, once again
with the risk of creating dissensions in the relations with our
neighbours. To our
knowledge, there have been no bilateral consultations with any
of the neighbouring
countries on this issue, which means that, if adopted, it could
constitute a reason for
further tensions between Romania and Ukraine.
As a result of the revolutionary events in Ukraine, a window of
opportunity has opened
and Romania has become more and more aware of Ukraines
importance and central
role in the region. Romanian authorities seemed to recently
better acknowledge the
need for constructive ground to engage a neighbour with which it
shares almost 700 km
of EU external border. Now more than ever, there is a need for
greater fairness in
bilateral relations and more reasonable requests of both parties
and, also, a need for
Romanian and Ukrainian officials to differentiate foreign policy
from internal affairs and
domestic politics.
2. Realities on the ground On the whole, the bilateral minority
issue can be roughly divided into three main
aspects: first, i) the recognition of the Romanians/Moldovans as
one single minority,
without the dissociation between Romanians proper and Moldovans;
second, ii) the
legal and practical environment for the use of the Romanian
language; and third, iii)
granting of the Romanian citizenship to Romanian ethnics from
Ukraine. Whilst in the
first two aspects the pressure stands on Ukrainian authorities,
the main driver of the
issue in the third case is the Romanian state, which for certain
reasons seems to have
-
6
overlooked some of the legal underpinnings of the Constitution
of Ukraine. Finally, in
spite of the various legal provisions that set the terms for the
use of Romanian
language, there is a huge gap in implementation, argued by the
Ukrainian authorities as
mainly due to the lack of funding.
2.1 Romanian and Moldovan? A question of de-archaizing
According to the last Ukrainian census (2001) there are 410.000
Romanians/Moldovans
in Ukraine, which constitute 0.8% of the population. Out of the
0.8%, approximately
two-thirds are denominated Moldovans according to the census. In
concrete figures,
150.989 are denominated Romanians and 258.619 are denominated
Moldovans, a one
to three ratio. The Romanian minority is the third largest in
Ukraine, although far
smaller than the Russian minority, which numbers approximately
8.3 million according
to the 2001 census. At the same time, the Ukrainian minority of
Romania numbers
approximately 51.000, which makes for 0.3% of the population and
ranks as the third
largest minority, although far behind the Hungarian one which
numbers approximately
1.4 million. Thus, there are certain quantitative similarities
between the Romanian
minority in Ukraine and the Ukrainian minority in Romania, as
both constitute less than
1% of each countrys population, as depicted in the figure
below.
0
0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
1
1,2
1,4
0 100000 200000 300000 400000 500000
Romanians / Moldovans in UKR
Ukrainians in RO
-
7
As it is obvious from the layout of the statistical data, in
Ukraine there is a division of the
Romanian community into Romanians proper and Moldovans. While
there are
situational grounds for naming some of the Romanian speakers
Moldovans (indeed, a
part of the Romanians from Ukraine call themselves Moldovans),
Ukraine commits itself
to an identity game which complicates the perception of
Bucharest toward Kyiv. Either
on the grounds of an incomplete understanding of Romanian
realities, or possibly as a
retaliation gesture, Kyiv has not been very responsive to this
strongly symbolical aspect,
which bears deep roots into the perception of Romania about
itself and its neighbours.
In the perception of Bucharest, this division between Romanians
and Moldovans
produces and perpetuates a habitus that objectifies and
de-structures the corpus of a
minority which is essentially one and the same. It is basically
a dividing trick that serves
for nothing more than producing effects in nationalist circles
in Kiev and feeding
stereotypes in Bucharest. At the same time, it fuels the complex
of denial which exists
among Romanians vis--vis the Moldovan construct, largely
considered an identity
engineering mechanism invented in the Soviet Union with the
purpose to deny Romania
any legitimacy on the territory and Romanian speaking population
in the Prut-Nistru
area.
Historic evidence suggests that geographically many Moldovans of
Ukraine have never
passed through the identity modernization process of the 18-19th
centuries. The
modernization of the language into the all-encompassing Romanian
was realized initially
through grammar and took place in the newly created state of
Romania. Thus, the
standardization of the language was the result of
cultural-linguistic modernization of the
new state. Nonetheless, the linguistic standardization was not
effected on the Romanian
population which had been incorporated in the Russian Empire. As
a result, the real
standardization could take effect only by the end of the 20th
century. For lack of this
complex socialization, a significant part of Romanians still
call themselves Moldovans,
while for Romania the acceptance of
modernization/standardization has the strongest
possible identity effect on the national psyche.
-
8
Thus, if Kyiv accepts this basic identity concern coming from
Bucharest, it might be a
very positive sign and an indication of the capacity to
understand why Romania still
cares so much about its minority. This is fundamentally a
recognition game that
somehow could be compared to the even more difficult recognition
game over who is
the rightful heir of Kyivan Rhus: Ukraine or Russia? However, in
response, Bucharest is
obliged to put an end (especially in its official discourse) to
any debates on the
possibility of the recreation of historical Great Romania or to
any debates on unionism,
which impacts on the territory of Ukraine as well.
At the same time, Romania should ensure that people are free
from any pressures in
declaring their ethnicity and should engage in constant dialogue
and communication
with the Ukrainian authorities and the Romanian communities in
Ukraine. Another
important aspect that was mentioned several times by the experts
that CRPE has
consulted is that the Government in Bucharest should make no
difference in approach
between those declaring themselves as Romanians and those that
declare themselves
Moldovans.
2.2 The Language Law in Ukraine and its consequences The Law On
Principles of the State Language Policy of Ukraine3, signed by
former
president Yanukovich on August 8th, 2012, has generated one of
the harshest security-
related debates on the Ukrainian political scene since its
independence. It has been part
and parcel of a much larger debate than usually perceived in
Bucharest, which tends to
see the issue as only pertaining to the Romanian minority. In
reality, for Kyiv this is a key
security concern, in relations with Russia and the latters
instrumentalization of the
Russian speaking population of Ukraine for geo-political
manoeuvres.
3 Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada (BVR), 2013, 23, st.218 -
Official publication record
-
9
Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that:
Clearly, the status of the Russian language is guaranteed in the
supreme law of Ukraine
along with the right of other minorities to use their languages.
During 2009-2010,
Yanukovich campaign included, among others, a legally redundant
promise to offer
Russian language a special status in the administration and
education sectors. It was, in
fact, a mechanism to attract the Russian speaking voters and
trade on Moscows
rhetoric in defence of compatriots abroad. The law was signed in
August 2012. Its
main provisions stipulated that, if the population of a minority
exceeds 10% of a region
(Romanian and Moldovan are expressly mentioned), the minority
has the right to use
their national languages in local administration, official
documents of local
governments, schools and public
inscriptions.
However, at the local level, in the regions
compactly populated by Romanians, the law
has produced few effects. The
implementation of the law has remained
wanting at best for lack of financial
resources and the number of public servants
capable of using Romanian has remained
the same. The true effect of the law was to
further politicize the debate on the language
while deflecting attention from issues of effective governance
or be used by politicians,
including politicians representing the Romanian minority, for
electoral mobilization. The
law on languages has not changed and had no real impact on the
working and
functioning of the Romanian schools or of the Romanian
newspapers.
The real problem has been not the use of language in
administration, but the gradual
drop in numbers of Romanian schools (from 89 schools in 1991, to
70 at present), which
For the Romanians here, however, this cancellation (of the
language law) is not at all scary. For them, nothing changes
because none of them had ever seen an official act in Romanian. The
number of employees who speak Romanian has not increased, and the
lack of law enforcement was always blamed on the lack of money.
Reportage by Laureniu Diaconu- Colintineanu for RFI Romania
-
10
could also have occurred due to objective
reasons the demographic changes, wherein
the number of Romanians has gradually
dropped in the last two decades, which is
consistent with a trend all over Ukraine. On
the other hand, the politics of assimilation or
Ukrainization has never stopped since
independence. This tacit policy of the
Ukrainian state has not been targeted
exclusively on the Romanian minority in the
country, however the replacement of
Romanian schools with Ukrainian ones has
been done through doubtful methods
whereby groups of parents would ask
authorities to replace the schools, invoking
reasons like lack of economic and career perspectives for the
children who graduate
from Romanian schools. For truths sake, it must be mentioned
that there have been
few protests from the Romanian community.3
As previously stated, at the end of February the Ukrainian Rada
adopted a legislative
proposal to repel this law mostly as a measure of precaution
against the Russian
minority, the largest in the country. Although the proposal was
blocked by a veto of the
interim President, Romanian officials have issued statements to
express concerns.
Although based on a misinformation of Romanian authorities, the
statements issued, as
well as the media debates within these few days have revealed
some interesting
aspects. While the Minister for the Relation with Romanians
Abroad was expressing
concerns about the Romanian minority being deprived of the
ability to use its native
language in official contexts, representatives of the Romanian
community in Ukraine
were stating that, in reality, the Romanian community wasnt de
facto enjoying this
right, due to poor implementation of the law and, possibly, to
the artificial segregation
"I note with deep concern the decision of the Parliament in Kiev
to repeal the law on regional languages. This decision prevents the
Romanian minority in Ukraine from using their mother tongue in
official settings. This is a flagrant violation of the rights of
Romanians in Ukraine as individuals and as a community. A decision
like this is not in accordance with European principles to which
pro-European forces in Kiev have declared support and is
incomprehensible in the context of recent political developments"
Declaration by Cristian David, former Minister for the Relation
with Romanians Abroad
-
11
between Romanian and Moldovan - speaking minorities, which
affects turnouts in
census and therefore the possibility of the Romanian minority to
claim its rights
commensurate with its size.
The short-lived debate thus showed that the Romanian community
in Ukraine needs
more direct, financial support and targeted assistance from the
Romanian government,
rather than grim political declarations and an extended law on
citizenship. CRPE would
recommend a more coherent and strategic approach to support the
Romanian
community in Ukraine (e.g., design, consult and implement a
Strategy to support the
Romanian minority in Ukraine), and making use of the different
policy instruments that
have proved efficient in other cases, such as scholarship
programs, granting resources
for teaching Romanian in schools etc.
2.3 The policy of acquiring citizenship/Romanian citizenship law
The constitution of Ukraine (Art. 4) stipulates that:
There is unique citizenship in Ukraine. The grounds of
acquisition and stopping of
citizenship of Ukraine are determined by law.
According to the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine a number of
positions explicitly proclaim
the impossibility to detain double citizenship. The first
principle of the law (Art. 2 (1))
resides on the single citizenship while it expressly provides
that If a citizen of Ukraine
has acquired the citizenship of (allegiance to) another state,
or more than one other
state, such person shall be treated only as a citizen of Ukraine
in legal relations with
Ukraine. Article 19 of the same law stipulates that voluntary
acquisition of the
citizenship of another state by the citizen of Ukraine shall be
treated as grounds for
deprivation of the citizenship of Ukraine.
Romanian policy of granting citizenship to those whose ancestors
had once detained it
and were deprived of it without consent has been a reality since
at least the 2000s.
-
12
While the moral grounds can be accepted on a case by case basis,
the law does not take
into account the legislation of Ukraine with respect to double
citizenship, its interests,
perceptions and historic background. These sensitivities seem
not to be openly
discussed between the two countries, giving the impression that
Romania is not fully
aware of the situation. The policymakers in Kiev are really
concerned with this, mainly in
relation to the Russian community and the ethnic Russians that
hold Russian citizenship,
and are thus treating Romania in the same manner.
As argued in a CRPE policy memo4 analyzing the Romanian policy
of regranting
Romanian citizenship, the procedure is not arbitrary, nor very
simple. It is organized on
a case-by-case analysis, documents are to be provided and
assessed to prove that the
respective person had Romanian citizenship before or that his/
her ancestors have hold
it etc. This policy is not based on ethnicity, but on previous
detaining of Romanian
citizenship. Romania should explain these arguments very well to
the Ukrainian
partners. At the same time, the issue of double citizenship and
the way it is treated
under the Ukrainian legislation should be made clear to the
potential Romanian ethnics
that might be interested in regaining the citizenship.
Another important aspect deals with the issue of the number of
citizenships that
Romania has re-granted for those living in Ukraine Romanian
Government should
make public for the Ukrainian authorities the real number of
citizenships. It would
become obvious for everybody that this is not a problem of a
relevant magnitude and
should not trigger any real concern from the Ukrainian
government (it is expected that
the number is an insignificant fraction from what happened with
the Russian
citizenships).
4 Politica romneasca de redobndire a ceteniei n comparaie cu
alte state din UE (The policy for regaining Romanian citizenship. A
comparison with other EU Member States), CRPE Policy Memo 22, June
2011
-
13
However, the latest developments in both countries have the
potential to increase the
tensions on the bilateral relation on this matter. In Ukraine, a
draft proposal, no. 4116,5
was submitted for discussion in the Rada on February 7, 2014
with the intention to
amend the Penal Code and criminalize the detaining of double
citizenship. The proposed
penalty for this is 3 to 10 years imprisonment.
In Romania, a legislative proposal to amend and supplement
Article 11 of Law no. 21 of
1 March 1991 on Romanian citizenship6 initiated at the end of
2013 and currently under
debate in the Parliament, intends to further ease the attainment
of Romanian
citizenship for Romanian ethnic minorities in other countries,
based not on the principle
of historical retribution (as was the case until now), but on
ethnicity.
The proposed new provision states that Romanian ethnics that
belong to minority
groups like linguistic minorities or ethnic groups existing in
other states, regardless of
the ethnonym used, who speak Romanian, may be granted Romanian
citizenship upon
request, with the possibility of keeping foreign citizenship and
establishing their
residence in the country or keeping it abroad, provided that the
conditions laid down
in art. Article 8. (1).b), c) and e) ' are met.
This change is meant to ensure that Romanians in Serbia,
Bulgaria, Ukraine, Macedonia,
Albania, Greece, and people living in more remote areas, such as
Transnistria, are able
to obtain Romanian citizenship upon request through a simplified
procedure. It is worth
mentioning that the consultation process has started, however,
it is obvious now that
not all the stakeholders have been involved and not all possible
impacts were taken into
account.
5 Initiatied by Batkivscina political party and registered under
6 The initiative is undertaken by all parties in the Romanian
Parliament, being based on art. 7 of the Romanian Constitution,
article governing the legal status of Romanians abroad, according
to which 'the state supports the strengthening of links with
Romanians
living abroad and shall act to preserve, develop and express
their ethnic, cultural,
linguistic and religious identity, while respecting the law of
the State that they are
citizens of'
-
14
CRPE strongly advocates for the preservation of the current
principle of historical
retribution and re-granting of the Romanian citizenship. We
should improve the current
procedure, make it faster, less bureaucratic and cumbersome when
possible, but
preserving the principle behind it Romania does not grant
citizenship based on
ethnicity, but on the grounds of historical retribution.
Other practices on citizenship in Ukraine - The Polish
experience
Just like in the case of Romania and Ukraine, the Polish
experience also takes root in the
WWII events and its aftermath. In 1951, Poland revoked
citizenship to all the Poles
which resided east of the Curzon Line as a result of Soviet
annexation. Thus, the Poles
east of the Line were naturalized as Soviet citizens and upon
the disintegration of USSR
became citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
and Russia. All in all, an
approximate number of 1 million Poles were left without their
natural right to be part of
the Polish political nation at the beginning of the 1990s. One
more category of deprived
former Polish citizens has been at stake - the Jews from Poland,
who in 1968 were
purged from Poland and revoked the citizenship. The Polish
minority of Ukraine
currently numbers 144,130 and constitutes 0.3% of the entire
population.
The Polish Charter (Karta Polaka) was established in December
2007 in order to settle a
series of political, judicial and symbolic issues to people of
Polish descent who do not
detain Polish citizenship. It grants a number of rights specific
of Poles with Polish
citizenship, but it imposes specific limits.
-
15
3. Conclusions and recommendations In an interview of the
Ukrainian ambassador to Romania, Teofil Bauer, the minority
issue has been quoted as one of the main three problems in the
bilateral relations, the
other two being the Krivoy Rog Plant historic debts and the
Bystroe canal. While these
problems are surely real, the problem of minorities has been
inflated either for the sake
of internal consumption in the public sphere, or because there
has been a lack of frank
dialogue and inclination to compromise.
Romanian officials should draw a clear line between internal
affairs and foreign policy
and, in fact, should take the needs of the Romanian minority in
Ukraine into account
and push for their fulfilment: schools where they can learn in
their native tongue, a
University where they can be taught in Romanian; the recognition
of diplomas obtained
by Ukrainian citizens in Romania; a branch of the Romanian
Cultural Institute in Ukraine;
more possibilities for the Romanian minority to travel to
Romania (as it can travel to
Moldova, without visas).
As argued extensively throughout the paper, several core issues
need to be addressed
by the two countries, in a stepwise approach, in order to
strengthen the cooperation on
the minorities issue:
First of all, the Romanian government should avoid applying
double standards for their
treatment of citizens that declare themselves part of the
Romanian ethnic minority and
those who declare Moldovan ethnicity. A commitment from the
Ukrainian authorities to
enhance dialogue with the communities and ensure that there is
no pressure being
manifested against declaring their ethnicity would clearly
signal the acceptance of the
legitimate identity concern expressed by Romania. However,
Bucharest should
consistently avoid any debate, particularly in the official
discourse, regarding the
boundaries of historical Great Romania, since any reference to
the re-integration of the
territories that shared Romanian language and culture can be
perceived as impacting to
the territory of Ukraine as well.
-
16
The second core issue regards the law on State Language Policy
of Ukraine and
instruments for supporting the Romanian minority in Ukraine. Our
recommendation is
stressing out the need of focusing on direct, financial support
and targeted assistance
from the Romanian government, rather than giving grim political
statements or
changing the citizenship law. More specifically, a constructive
approach would entail
designing a more coherent strategy for supporting the Romanian
minority, based on
consultation and social dialogue, coupled with making use of the
targeted policy
instruments that have proved efficient, for instance scholarship
programs and granting
resources for teaching Romanian in schools.
Finally, the procedure for re-granting of the Romanian
citizenship should be simplified
by removing the cumbersome bureaucratic barriers. Importantly,
the underlying
principle of historical retribution ought to be preserved,
Romania does not offer
citizenship based on ethnicity, but on historical retribution.
However, there is
substantial need for improvement in case of improving the
communication with both
Ukrainian authorities, and the Romanian communities in
Ukraine.
Romanian Center for European Policies 2014
Str. Stirbei Voda nr. 29
Et. 2, Bucuresti 1
[email protected]
www.crpe.ro
Tel. +4 0371.083.577
Fax. +4 0372.875.089