Dick Spring
Question:16 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will seek co-operation from his EC counterparts in making a protest to the Romanian Government regarding the treatment of Hungarians in Transylvania.
Written Answers. - Treatment of Hungarians in Romania.
The political situation in Romania, including the situation of the ethnic minorities living there, is a matter of great interest to the Foreign Ministers of the Twelve and one that they have been closely monitoring since the revolution there in December. There is, in fact, at present a Troika mission in that country to gain further information on the political situation there on behalf of the Community.
Following the disturbances in March between ethnic Hungarians and Romanians in Transylvania, the Romanian Prime Minister, Petre Roman, wrote to the Taoiseach and other European leaders expressing the determination of the Romanian authorities to find a solution to the question of ethnic minorities on the basis of the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all citizens of the country. The Taoiseach welcomed these assurances. We hope and trust that after the suffering that the ethnic Hungarians endured under the Ceausescu regime they will now be able to find a full expression of their political and cultural rights in a democratic Romania.