The Moldovan officials are accusing Bucharest officials of discriminating the "Moldovan" ethnics in Romania, actually in an attempt to cause bilateral relations to deteriorate significantly just a few days before the Romanian foreign minister Lazar Comanescu is paying a visit to Chishinau. Grigore Petrenco, a Moldovan MP, a member of the Moldovan delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly in the Council of Europe and also a leader of the Communist Youth Union in the Moldovan Republic, has addressed the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, demanding the institution to prevent the break of the right to national identity of the Moldovan ethnics in Romania. In his document he expresses doubt about Romanian authorities' obedience to the EU standards, given "the violation of Moldovans' right to national identity in Romania". The deputy is claiming that Romanian Justice wouldn't register the Community of Moldovans in Romania, born in the Moldovan Republic, a group wishing "to resist and protect the fundamental rights of the Moldovan citizens who are residents in Romania". There is also argued that Romanian judicial authorities banned the association because of claiming that "there is no Moldovan nation separate from the Romanian nation, although in Romania there is a considerable number of national minorities: Magyars, Bulgarians and Roma." Such action is described as political and right-breaking (the rights of persons calling themselves Moldovans). According to the Communist deputy who is a good friend of President Voronin's, Romanian authorities are in the habit of imposing some people's identity and of denying the identity of persons who think they are Moldovans, which is unacceptable. As argument, there is also added that the Moldovans aren't even included in the official list of minorities in Romania. An important visit Romania's foreign minister Lazar Comanescu is to go to Chishinau on July 7. This is the first visit a high official from Romania is paying to the Moldovan Republic, after the one paid by the Romanian PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu in the summer of 2007, when he failed to settle the tensed relations between the two states. The Voronin regime's main claims are actually a basic treaty, a border treaty and the formal recognition of the Moldovan language and nation by Romania. Mircea Geoana, a head of Romanian senators' foreign affairs committee, was to talk to the Moldovan officials in Chishinau last week. But he cancelled his visit because the high officials of the Moldovan Republic would no longer talk to him, although scheduled. (...)

Mihai ISAC