Petre Costea, an American civil rights lawyer and an independent candidate for Romania in the European Parliament, has started a petition addressed to Bucharest to facilitate the notoriously dragged-out process of regaining Romanian citizenship.
Costea held a press conference in Chisinau today to urge Moldovans to sign the petition in great numbers so that in three weeks he can hand it to the Romanian authorities.
Visiting Chisinau earlier to collect signatures for his European Parliament bid, the lawyer met numerous Moldovans who complained about how much of a hassle it could be to regain Romanian nationality.
“This great injustice” reminded the Romanian American jurist of his own tedious effort, of the thousands of dollars spent in bureaucratic fees and thousands of miles travelled, to regain his citizenship, after he had fled communist Romania in 1978. “I had to return to Romania to get a new birth certificate. It was overall a very abusive and humiliating process”, said Petre Costea.
According to Petre Costea, before being handed to the Romanian authorities, the petition needs to be signed by thousands of Moldovans who think the dragged-out process of regaining Romanian citizenship violates their rights. The petition is available online.