'Szekely Land' autonomy arbitration request denied in Strasbourg

A request for arbitration in relation to the autonomy of the 'Szekely Land' in Romania demanded by several local councils from the counties of Covasna, Harghita and Mures was denied on Tuesday in Strasbourg by the Monitoring Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities (CLRA) of the Council of Europe.

Photo credit:: (c) Viorel LAZARESCU / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The chair of Romania's CLRA delegation Ludmila Sfirloaga told AGERPRES that the request was denied because it does not fall under the CLRA or the Council of Europe's jurisdiction. She said the matter is the object of a domestic political dispute, and consequently it should be discussed in the country not inside European courts.

Forty-seven local councils from the counties of Covasna, Harghita and Mures that called on the Council of Europe for support winning autonomy for the 'Szekely Land' were represented in Strasbourg by, among others, chairman of the Covasna County Council Tamas Sandor and Mayor of the City of Sfantu Gheorghe Antal Arpad, according to a press releases issued by the Romanian delegation's CLRA Secretariat.

"There was a very heated debate that was also attended by members from France, Italy, Finland, Portugal and Moldova (...) Despite the pressure put on the committee members by a group of nearly 20 people of Hungarian extraction led by the head of Hungary's delegation with the CLRA, the chair of the Romanian delegation, Mrs Ludmila Sfirloaga, managed to win the rejection of the arbitration requested by the representatives of the 'Szekely Land' and the [rejection of the] possibility for CLRA to dispatch a monitoring mission to Romania in this case, using her arguments and determination. The demarche was supported by the other members of Romania's...