ROMANIAN ETHNIC MINORITY IN UKRAINE: CURRENT ISSUES AND PROSPECTS OF SURVIVAL
ROMANIAN ETHNIC MINORITY IN UKRAINE: CURRENT ISSUES AND PROSPECTS OF SURVIVAL

Summary/Abstract: In the Soviet period the Romanian ethic minority in Ukraine was submitted to a Russification process, in order to achieve the so-called Soviet People, speaking of the Russian language. Now there is a process of Ukrainization in order to achieve a Ukrainian nation, including the ethnic minorities. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Romania and the Republic of Moldova (RM) have the duty to establish agreements and cooperation with Ukraine, to create common governmental Ukrainian-Romanian- Moldovan commissions on the fields of education, culture and so on, to solve all problems regarding the preservation of the ethnic identity of the Romanian minority. In this regard there are a few topical problems: to open schools with the Romanian language of teaching in the Romanian villages with no such schools; to create an University with Romanian as the language of teaching in CernăuŃi (Chernivtsy) or in HerŃa; the problem of the recognition of diplomas obtained by the Ukrainian citizens in Romania and RM (the graduates have to pay a lot and must take certain exams); a branch of the Romanian Cultural Institute in CernăuŃi is a matter of urgency; to enhance the cooperation within the Upper Prut Euro region and Lower Danube Euro region, between the RM, Ukraine and Romania; to open all the possibilities for the Romanian minority to travel in Romania, as it can travel in Moldova, without visas (in this regard, the authorities from Bucharest and from Kiev must achieve the same agreements as the Polish Government achieved with the Ukrainian Government); the example of the Swedish minority from Finland would be useful to follow: as it is known, the Swedish language has the status of state language in Finland. Perhaps, it would be useful to introduce the Romanian language as the official language in the Romanian villages from the CernăuŃi and Odessa regions. The perspectives of the Romanian minority survival depend on the implementing these proposals.

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