In Serbia, senior official Ciamba meets leaders of main organisations of the local Romanian minority

On the second say of an official visit to Serbia on Wednesday, senior official with the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) George Ciamba, also co-chair of the Romania-Serbia Joint Intergovernmental Commission for the Protection of National Minorities, met leaders of the main organisations of persons belonging to the local Romanian minority, according to a press statement released by MAE.

He reconfirmed Romania's support for respecting the specific rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority throughout Serbia, especially as regards access to education, mass media and religious service in Romanian.

Ciamba reiterated Romania's position on the principle of supporting the non-discriminatory application throughout Serbia of the same standards on the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority.

Representatives of the Romanian minority organisations in Serbia presented to Ciamba the difficulties they are facing and made concrete requests for support. These concerns will be discussed by Romania and Serbia at the meetings of the Romania-Serbia Joint Intergovernmental Commission.

The joint commission was established under an agreement between the Government of Romania and the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on co-operation in the protection of national minorities signed in Belgrade on November 4, 2002 that entered into force on July 12, 2004.

This forum makes recommendations for each of the two governments: common recommendations on the measures necessary for the exercise of the national minorities' rights and the protection of their identity, as per Article 11 of the agreement.

The last protocol to date of this commission was signed in Brussels in March 2012. The protocol explicitly states Serbia's accepting the connection between its accession to the EU and the Copenhagen political criteria, including the protection of national minorities.

Thus, it is mentioned that the Republic of Serbia, in the process of accession to the EU, undertakes to respect and apply the Copenhagen political criteria, including the protection of national minorities, in accordance with the relevant regional and bilateral international instruments it has ratified, says MAE. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)