Irregularities

BUCHAREST The Romanian Government has engaged in some fancy electoral footwork to accommodate the demands of Brussels and Berlin for the imposition of EU law. The Romanian Government managed to ring massive constitutional changes from its people only with the aid of widely criticised ,,irregularities". The new Constitution reflects the demands of Germany and the EU by establishing a more accommodating framework for inward investment, strengthening ,,ethnic"minorities and regulates the transfer of sovereign powers to the EU.

,,No sovereignty"

In the 1990s Bucharest had tried for a time to resist the demands of Berlin and Brussels to change the Romanian economy to suit the wishes of western business and instead to pursue their own concepts of economic development. The proponents of this strategy however gave up after the NATO attack on Yugoslavia in the Spring of 1999 and today engaged in the re-structuring of the Romanian constitution. ,,The NATO war against Yugoslavia was a signal that we could no longer have a vision of political self determination"declared an East European critic of this development. 1)

An EU determined constitution

The new Constitution, just approved in a hotly disputed referendum, adapts Romanian property rights to EU Law and permits EU citizens to acquire property in Romania. The new law also contains wide ranging minority rights laws which follow German precepts. They permit the 1.6 million Hungarian minority and also the German speaking minority the use of their languages in courts of law and in local government. In addition the new constitution lays down the method of joining the EU which can now be achieved by a simple majority in Parliament.

Strong German minority

The German Government had already contractually assured the influence of the German speaking minority in Romania. At a meeting of the ,,German-Romanian Government Commission on the Affairs of German minorities in Romania", an organisation already privileged by the official support of the German Government of its proteges in Romania, an Agreement was signed which provided for funds from the German Home and Foreign Offices - circa 3.85 million Euros in 2003. But Berlin is seeking to use the imminent entry of Romania into the EU in order to pass onto others the costs of this advanced guard of German Foreign policy. After EU entry there would be a ,,re-shuffling of the cards"as other (doubtless EU) funds would become available for the German speaking minority.

1) See Hannes Hofbauer: Osterweiterung (EU Enlargement)

Sources:
Berlin sichert deutscher Minderheit in Rumaenien weitere Hilfe zu; DW-Monitor Ost-/Suedosteuropa 24.09.2003
Referendum in Rumaenien; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 18.20.2003
Referendum droht zu scheitern; Sueddeutsche Zeitung 20.10.2003
Rumaenisches Verfassungsreferendum doch gueltig; www.orf.at 20.10.2003


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