Nobody treats problem of foreign communities seriously in Moldova, Petru Grozavu

No one tackles the problem of foreign communities seriously in Moldova, the head of the Cultural Society “Dunarea si Marea” Petru Grozavu said during the consultations initiated by the Prime Minister elect Vlad Filat with the civil society, employers and trade unions. “At pragmatical level, the relations with our foreign communities and the states where these communities live were intentionally or unreasonably reduced to festivities like the World Congress of Moldovans that takes place in Chisinau once in two years and has nothing to do with the real problems faced by these communities,” Petru Grozavu said. According to him, things developed normally only during 1990-1994. Afterward, the situation has worsened and nowadays nobody in Moldova treats the problems of the foreign communities seriously at official level, though we have bilateral treaties with a number of states that are home to these communities, first of all Ukraine and Russia, and are party to a series of International Conventions, with the Law on the Government also stipulating certain responsibilities in this respect. Grozavu said that the Moldovan authorities should follow the classical models of relations with the foreign communities used by Israel, Germany, the U.S., Turkey, Romania and even Russia. “Things must be reviewed at institutional, conceptual and applicative level, at the level of projects and programs. I do not say that we should have a ministry in charge of this as in Russia, but it is not normal to formally leave the foreign communities in the care of the Department of Interethenic Relations, which has other duties and functions,” Petru Grozavu said.