NATO has been and is an important factor of geopolitical stability and security in our “increasingly tried” region said on Tuesday the leader of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) senators, Cseke Attila.
“Romania’s accession to the North Atlantic Alliance on March 29, 2004 marked an important moment in the country’s post-December 1989 history, a moment that meant a completion of Romania’s preparation and rapprochement policies with NATO, carried out over several years. It also meant a long trial of attempts, attempts that required credibility and trust to be loyal partners in the world’s strongest political and military alliance. Romania’s accession to NATO was followed by its accession to the European Union on January 1, 2007 – these two goals being the two main country projects after the end of the totalitarian communist regime in Romania. UDMR has been an active player in their completion, which it had supported since the ’90s, as the two desiderata are the expression of the country’s connection to Western values,” Cseke told a joint plenary sitting of Parliament.
According to him, strengthening the Romanian Army and its presence in NATO military organisations are continuous tasks that must be constant concerns in order to develop the experience specific to this field.
“Of course, joining the Schengen area with the land borders and accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development are important desiderata for achieving what is necessary to coagulate democratic forces and sustained international demarches. In order to join the Schengen area by land borders, the injustice done to Romania since 2011 must end as soon as possible.”
Cseke added that UDMR considers that the next most important country project should be the one related to the size of Romania’s population.
“In 2019, 215,467 children were born in Romania. That number, according to official statistics, drops to 155,390 children in 2023. That’s a brutal drop of nearly 30 percent in just four years. A country less inhabited, with a sharply decreasing birth rate, with strong negative natural growth, can easily become a weaker country from many points of view due to limited human resources and with the prospect of a society that only supports itself and does not develop. We believe that public policies to support families, measures to encourage birth rates and support young people must become priorities in governmental and parliamentary endeavours. We have legislative and administrative proposals to find immediate solutions for this important country project.”
Cseke concluded by saying that Romania’s accession to NATO 20 years ago is an important moment that was, 14 years after the fall of communism, a success of the entire society, of the conscious political class, generating the direction of rapprochement and consecration of the country’s ties with common Western values.