The National Liberal Party (PNL) urges the Moldovan people who submitted or intend to submit applications for scheduling appointments for presenting the documents needed to regain Romanian nationality to send letters directly to the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest as the procedure is excessively bureaucratized. “We do not attack Romania, but the hypocrisy of the Romanian functionaries, who make the Bessarabian Romanians go through a terrible ordeal,” the leader of the PNL Vitalia Pavlichenko said in a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on January 25. Pavlichenko said that though the President of Romania Traian Basescu in November last year promulgated amendments to the Romanian nationality law, which reduce the term for examining applications to five months, the procedure is rather difficult in reality. “We consider that this is a problem that the Government and the President of Romania must solve as the law is not adequately implemented. The modified law does not require the presentation of the criminal record and scheduling of appointments,” Vitalia Pavlichenko said. Thus, Vitalia Pavlichenko and Gheorghe Vita, the president of the Union of Romanians from Bessarabia, Northern Bucovina and Hertsa Region, called on the Moldovans who submitted or plan to submit applications for scheduling appointments for presenting the required documents through Moldova's Post Office and the consular section of Romania in Chisinau to send letters directly to the Controceni Palace and describe the encountered obstacles in the letter. Gheorghe Vita said the Bessarabian Romanians are the most discriminated as a Bessarabian can regain the Romanian nationality during seven years, while the Romanian who emigrated from Romania during 1970-1989 can regain the nationality in 3-6 months. According to Vita, there are more than 500,000 applications filed by Bessarabians that were stored in the garage of the consular section in Chisinau without being examined. “Does Traian Basescu know about them? Does he know that more than 2,000 cases expect to be examined in courts in Bucharest? Bessarabia is Romanian only during the election campaigns,” Gheorghe Vita said. “I think there is a certain fear that Moldova could become depopulated and that the number of EU citizens will increase, but the European Union is not ready to assimilate the labor force that will move freely,” Vitalia Pavlichenko said. The PNL leader is convinced that the Moldovans will continue to submit applications for regaining the Romanian nationality even after the visa regime between Moldova and the EU is liberalized. “It is a matter of Romanian conscience and identity. The fact that a lot of Moldovans holding Romanian nationality took part in the presidential elections in Romania shows that the people not only wanted Romanian passports, but are also responsible,” Pavlichenko said. The PNL said the Romanian President Traian Basescu could clarify this issue during the visit that he will be paying to Chisinau between January 27 and 28.