Hyde Park criticizes Romania’s National Authority for Citizenship for lack of transparency

The civic association Hyde Park condemns the National Authority for Citizenship of Romanian for lack of transparency and says that its work should come under close scrutiny. “The practice of not answering the people’s requests and making them queue up at institutions has been perpetuated for many years. But now Romania has different pretensions. It is already an EU member state that pledged to respect the rights of all the citizens, not only of those who have Romanian nationality, and it should be now more responsible,” Ghenadie Brega, a member of Hyde Park, said in a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo. According to Ghenadie Brega, many of the people who sought help from Hyde Park encounter problems in the communication with the Romanian institutions. They complained about excessive bureaucratization and of being forced to queue up and not having access to the public servants who can provide indispensable information for obtaining Romanian nationality. During two days of monitoring, the members of Hyde Park identified a number of violations in the work of Romania’s National Authority for Citizenship. It did not announce that it moved to a new head office and did not post the working programs of its divisions. Besides, the telephone lines that should provide the people with the necessary information are not working. The appointments are often scheduled in exchange for money. The members of Hyde Park say this way bureaucracy generates corruption. The NGO calls on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and other competent authorities of Moldova to intervene and make sure that the rights of the Moldovan people who apply for Romanian nationality are observed. On August 3, Hyde Park picketed the Romanian Consulate in Chisinau, making common cause with the thousands of people who form endless queues and are treated badly because they don’t know their rights.