Democrat EU observer Monica Iacob Ridzi said in yesterday's news conference that consent to the project law on national minorities' status was not a condition for Romania's accession to the EU. The Democrat deputy opined that MPs from UDMR (the Democrat Union of Hungarians in Romania) had done powerful lobby in the European Parliament so that in the Moscovici report there would be included some amendments for "compromise" on the adoption of the national minorities' status. The EU observer explained: "This law on minorities is no condition to Romania's accession. When they talked about criteria for accession they didn't mention such a thing." Such statement is in contradiction to those of Liberal representatives in the European Parliament. In Thursday's news conference the latter said the law project on minorities' status was a condition invoked by MEPs with view to Romania's accession. (...) (R.A.)