RESOLUTION A3-0128/93

The European Parliament,

-having regard to the motion for a resolution by Mr Newton Dunn and Mr McMillan-Scott on the Community's relations with Romania (B3-2128/90),

-having regard to the trade and commercial and economic agreement between the European Community and Romania,

-having regard to the conclusion of a European Association Agreement between the European Community and Romania on 1 February 1993,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Security and the opinions of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0128/93),

A.whereas, since the fall of Ceaucescu, Romania has made genuine efforts to introduce more democracy into political life and establish a market economy by means of legislation, but whereas the effects of this in practice still leave something to be desired,

B.whereas, following the elections of 27 September 1992, these efforts must be continued in order to encourage the process of democracy,

C.having regard also to the poor state of the Romanian economy and the inadequacy of its basic infrastructure (transport, energy, telecommunications, etc.),

D.whereas Romania should continue its efforts so as to accomplish an adequate social protection mechanism to facilitate the transition towards a market economy,

E.whereas Romania does, however, have assets in terms of its population and natural resources, giving good grounds for looking forward to substantial economic development in the future,

F.whereas Romania, which shares borders with Bulgaria, the former Yugoslav Federation, Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova, is situated in a sensitive area, and whereas it is in the interest of Europe as a whole to preserve the stability of that area,

G.whereas it is therefore important to develop transfrontier cooperation in order to maintain peace and stability in the area with a view to establishing ever closer relations with the European Community,

H.whereas Romania has various ethnic and religious minorities who suffer discrimination at the hands of the State and are in some cases threatened locally by extreme nationalists,

I.convinced that, by virtue of its history and culture, Romania is an essential part of the European family, whose contribution has for too long been eclipsed because of historical circumstances which have now been overcome,

J.whereas minorities in Romania have in the past been victims of compulsory Romanization and some of these human rights abuses (notably against gypsies) continue to this day,

K.whereas the situation of children in Romania, especially that of orphans, has improved since the political change of 1989, partly thanks to Community financial aid in this field channelled through Community non-governmental organizations,

1.Supports the establishment of closer links between the European Community and Romania through a European Association Agreement;

2.Calls upon the countries of south-eastern Europe, including Romania, to strengthen their mutual relations and cooperate with countries in the Visegrad group so as to strengthen relations between the European Community and all those countries;

3.Calls on the Romanian Government to pursue its policy of political and economic reform so as to bring its standards into line with the values and democratic orders currently shared by the European Community and most European countries;

4.Believes that the Council of Europe, through its 'Demosthenes' programme, should assist Romania in reforming its legislation and thereby genuinely becoming a State based on the rule of law; considers, in particular, that any aspect of the Romanian legal system liable to entail human rights violations should be abolished, that the electoral law should be improved to avoid the possibility of fraud, and that freedom of information should be guaranteed, in particular in the audiovisual sector;

5.Believes that a special effort to develop freedom of information and diversity of the media in Romania is desirable: considers that substantial financial resources from the programme for the development of democracy which forms part of PHARE should be devoted to this objective in the form of technical assistance (for example to modernize printworks, improve the distribution of audiovisual and literary works and newspapers and the quality and availability of paper), exchange programmes and meetings between members of the relevant professions at European level, and improve training in media professions;

6.Is aware of the historic importance, for the transition towards a 'new democratic Romania', of the legal, economic, social and political position of minorities, who have been so badly mistreated in the past, and of the extremely high value of guarantees of religious, linguistic and cultural pluralism in a democracy, where the rights of all minorities must be respected and safeguarded, and draws in particular attention to the situation of the Hungarian, Gypsy, German and Jewish minorities;

7.Hopes that the structures and all the powers of the Romanian State will be able to guarantee this requirement satisfactorily and thereby ensure successful coexistence among citizens whose languages differ, thereby also contributing to good relations between Romania and its neighbours;

8.Encourages and hopes for further development of the dialogue programmes currently being promoted by various groups under the auspices of the CSCE, between representatives of the various ethnic groups, and in particular the multilateral dialogue between Romanians, Hungarians, Gypsies, Germans and Jews;

9.Believes that decentralization of power and enhancement of local communities and political and administrative structures can contribute much to the development of democracy and of full participation by individual citizens;

10.Supports the restraint so far shown by Romania with regard to Moldova and encourages it to remain faithful in this respect to the provisions of the Helsinki Agreements and the Paris Charter;

11.Recognises the difficulties placed on Romania by compliance with the UN Security Council embargo against Serbia and Montenegro and appreciates that the Presidency of the Council, when reviewing the situation in December 1992, concluded that Romania was using its best endeavours; however, calls on Romania to continue its efforts to comply fully with the decisions of the UN Security Council with respect to the embargo against Serbia and Montenegro and to take the necessary measures for this purpose and mentions the need for an increased Community assistance in this regard;

12.Stresses the importance of political dialogue, as provided for in the Association Agreement, in dealing with the problems affecting or liable to affect peace and stability in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the territory of the former Soviet Union, and expresses the wish that this dialogue will, at least once a year, take place on a multilateral basis by being extended to all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe linked to the European Community by an association agreement;

13.Welcomes the process of cooperation among the countries bordering the Black Sea and hopes that this cooperation can be satisfactorily integrated with the stepping up of relations between the European Community and the countries in the region concerned;

14.Urges the Commission to use the PHARE programme to step up European Community action in Romania, notably through the action of the G24 Group and the EBRD so as to eliminate the deficiencies of the Romanian economy, eliminate wastage and build a new, more environment-friendly industrial apparatus;

15.Stresses also that the modernization of the Romanian economy calls for large-scale action in the field of infrastructure, in particular transport, and that certain transport links between Romania and neighbouring countries should be developed as a matter of priority, especially towards Hungary, Bulgaria and further afield, towards Greece, but that this requires a careful and far-sighted assessment of the environmental impact;

16.Calls for the maximum effort to be made in cooperation between the Community and Romania to implement joint programmes to safeguard and improve the environment and carry out economic and technological measures compatible with the 'sustainable development' which all were called upon to pursue at the recent UNCED conference held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992;

17.Calls for Romania to be included in Community education programmes (ERASMUS, LINGUA, COMETT, PETRA, etc.) as soon as possible and for its participation to be financed from PHARE funds; provision should be made for environmental education within the framework of PHARE, and it should become a priority in TEMPUS;

18.Calls on the Romanian authorities to submit to the Commission as soon as possible a request for the Community to open an Information Office in Bucharest so that the earmarked funds can be released; the information distributed should not be confined to the usual superficial statements, but should comprise real facts about the situation and debates in the Member States, and should be made available in all the languages spoken in Romania;

19.Notes that there are serious inadequacies in Romania's cultural infrastructure and calls on the Council and Commission to earmark substantial appropriations in the budget for cultural cooperation (e.g. to cover the training of art restorers) as from 1994 so that the cultural section in the association agreement does not remain a dead letter;

20.Believes that special attention and support are required for cultural and scientific cooperation, youth exchanges, the work of voluntary non-governmental organizations, town-twinning schemes, and anything which may increase direct mutual familiarity between Community citizens and citizens of Romania;

21.Urges Romania to adopt the necessary legislation to attract private foreign investors in order to accelerate its economic development;

22.Declares its willingness to give favourable consideration to the Association Agreement between the European Community and Romania, but expects guarantees from the Government with respect to:

(a)the continuation of the process of democratization, in particular respect for human rights and the rights of minorities, and freedom of information, especially in the audio-visual sector, and complete freedom of religion;

(b)compliance with the international agreements signed by Romania, in particular the Helsinki Agreements and the Charter of Paris, to ensure that the present borders are not called into question by force;

(c)respect for the decisions of the UN Security Council with respect to the former Yugoslav Federation;

(d)the continuation of economic reforms in order to establish a genuine social market economy;

23.Attributes the greatest importance to guarantees concerning the continuation of political and economic reforms and the protection of human and minority rights with a view to its opinion on the future association agreement;

24.Believes that insofar as the Association Agreement provides access to the Community for coal and related products all Community Member States should be subject to broadly the same arrangements;

25.Believes that insofar as the Association Agreement provides access to the Community for agricultural products these must be regularly reviewed to promote a balanced package of trade;

26.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council, the Council of Europe and the Romanian Government and Parliament.