Quarter of Moldovans Now Have Romanian Passports

One out of every four Moldavans now has Romanian citizenship, and the proportion could rise by the end of 2021 to a third of the total population, according to official statistics.

The number of Moldovans with Romanian citizenship has increased steadily over the last 20 years, and has reached 642,149 people out of a total of 2.7 million inhabitants.

The figures come from Romania's Justice Ministry, which says 786,546 Moldovans have so far requested citizenship of Romania, of which about 144,434 applications were waiting to be resolved by the end of 2020.

A Romanian parliamentarian, Stefan Iulian Lorincz, told BIRN that he asked the ministry for the exact number of applications because there were so many.

"In February, we had a discussion with the Minister of Justice as we wanted to see how we can unblock the queues at the National Authority for Citizenship," he told BIRN. He added that one problem there is understaffing.

"I want to get some official data before I produce a more extensive report on this issue. It is a problem that I hear often, and I receive daily messages daily from Moldova on this matter. I'm trying to see now how we can unblock this situation," he added.

Most Moldovans speak Romanian and are ethnically similar to Romanians. Moldova formed part of the kingdom of Romania between the two world wars, after which it was annexed by the Soviet Union.

The recent pandemic slowed down the passport application rate by 80 per cent, primarily due to movement restrictions between Romania and Moldova. Only 17,549 citizenship applications were submitted to Romania in 2020. However, Romania continued to process earlier applications from Moldovans for citizenship over this period - 66,158 in total.

After the...