Ukraine safeguarding the right to education in the mother tongue of Romanians amid the Ukrainian Parliament having recently passed a law on the use of the languages of national minorities in the education system, was the theme of a meeting of the Romanian Senate Foreign Policy Committee.

Senior official Ana Tinca, on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, senior official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dan Iancu and the Romanian ambassador to Ukraine presented information on the diplomatic and institutional actions taken by the Romanian authorities to protect the rights of the Romanian community in Ukraine.

Aurica Bojescu, representative of the Romanian community in Ukraine, also participated via videoconference.

An important part of the hearing was the concerns expressed by representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine, including those presented in a memorandum of the National-Cultural Association of Romanians from the Odessa - Bessarabia region, on securing the continuity of education in Romanian and the observance of the right to education in the mother tongue, as well as the serious risks of restricting the education of ethnic Romanians in the mother tongue, according to the committee .

The committee said they aimed to obtain clarifications regarding the diplomatic approaches of the MAE with the Ukrainian authorities, the stage of the bilateral dialogue regarding the operation of the educational establishments with Romanian tuition and the effects of the new Ukrainian legislation and of the educational policy measures adopted by Ukraine on the Romanian communities.

Discussions focused on issues that continue to generate concerns about 'the risks of the right to education in Romanian being curtailed.'

At the same time, the results of the Romanian authorities' actions, difficulties encountered and the diplomatic measures envisaged next were examined, as well as the ways in which MAE consults with representatives of the Romanian community in Ukraine and monitors the situation of education in Romanian.

The Senate's Foreign Policy Committee specifies that it 'pays special attention' to the protection of the rights and identity of the Romanian communities abroad and that it will continue to follow the developments in this field, to support the institutional dialogue necessary to defend the educational and linguistic rights of the Romanian community in Ukraine.' It reiterates Romania's support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, as well as for its European integration design, but it adds that the support of the Romanian Senate/Parliament is conditional on strict compliance with the political criteria for accession to the European Union and the European standards on the protection of national minorities established by the Council of Europe.

'A possible dissolution of some Romanian schools or the restriction of education in the mother tongue represents a contradiction of the political guarantees offered to Romania by the Ukrainian authorities, including at the presidential level - guarantees according to which no Romanian school will be closed and the education of ethnic Romanians in their mother tongue will not suffer - and will be treated accordingly at the level of the Senate/Parliament of Romania,' the Senate Foreign Policy Committee reports. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Livia Popescu; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)