During his recent visit to Kladovo the President of Romania Traian Băsescu said that “we are trying to persuade our friends in Serbia in a friendly way that Romanian minority in your country must enjoy all privileges which the Serbs in Romania have. Above all I have in mind preservation of language, culture and freedom of religion. This makes an obligation for the minority itself to be loyal citizens of the country they live in”.

   The absence of any media reaction to a clearly stated dissatisfaction of the President of Romania by the position of Romanians/Vlasi in East Serbia is very surprising. Everybody interested in international relations of our country can see that this is the point of his statement. Those who have read the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 1 October 2008 as well as the report of the special rapporteur Jürgen Herrmann know that there is an undoubtedly negative attitude towards discrimination of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Serbia not only in this neighboring country, but also on the international level. The Ministry of Religion conditions the registration of this church with concurrence granted by the Serbian Orthodox Church and refuses to allow the work of the eparchy and protopersviteriate of the ROC in compliance with its autonomous decisions and obstinately restricts the work of the ROC in the region of Banat.

   As the media are responsible for the absence of the public attention, the administration organs are responsible just as much for the absence of an objective and reliable knowledge about ethnic and religious orientation of the population of East Serbia. These data may not have been collected by the census on account of an optional character of the questions about the said characteristics and the degree of dissection of applied classification. The census is not carried out with the aim of establishing the number of believers of individual churches such as the Romanian and Serbian Orthodox Churches. The reliable data about this are the first prerequisite for making progress in solution of this problem.

   There is no reason for the Ministry of Religion not to direct a part of funds intended for

financing of religious communities and non-governmental organizations towards a research which would use a survey to help remove all doubts about the facts. Since this is not a public procurement but an expertise, it is clearly understandable that for implementation of this work the Ministry should select the partners it shares the most similar program orientations with as well as those it has the most confidence in.

   The only obligation towards the citizens would be a full public availability of the research

method and results.

18 August 2009                                on behalf of the Center for Development of civil Society

                                                                                            Vladimir Ilić,

                                                                                        Executive director