The European Court for Human Rights has decided that the Law banning the Moldovans with double citizenship from acceding to public positions is limiting the human rights and freedoms, according to Deutsche Welle.
The decision of the Court from Strasbourg was highly welcomed by the Moldovans, given that the estimated number of citizens with double or multiple citizenships in the Republic of Moldova amounts to hundreds of thousands.
The double citizenship in the Republic of Moldova was made legal by the communists, in the first years of their come back to power. This is what made many Moldovans get back their Romanian citizenship or obtain a Russian, Ukrainian or Bulgarian citizenship.
When the media started to question the existence of a Moldovan identity, considering that actually every other Moldovan became the citizen of a different state as well, the communist authorities resorted to administrative limitations against the individuals with a double citizenship.
On April 10th, this year, the Communist and Christian-Democrat deputies voted a law to ban all those individuals with double citizenship from getting public positions, including from becoming deputies. It was intended “not to endanger the national security”, because these persons, by their position, have access to classified state secrets.
The independent experts criticized these restrictions very harshly, mentioning they were aimed first at the Moldovans with a Romanian citizenship, because Romania is the only country that publishes the name of the persons who regained their Romanian citizenship in the “Official Gazette”.
Immediately after publication, the law was challenged at ECHR by the liberal mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, and by the vice-president of the Liberal-Democrat Party, legal advisor Alexandru Tanase – both with a Romanian citizenship.
On the 11th of November, the Court from Strasbourg announced the decision in this case, to the detriment of the Government from Chisinau. Lawyer Janeta Hanganu now claims that the law must be either amended, or revoked.
“The Court highlighted that its decision was also determined by the fact that the Government from Chisinau ignored all recommendations and warning signs from the international bodies. The findings of the Court, namely that this law could be contrary to art.17 of the European Convention on Human Rights, means that everybody who is targeted by this law is a victim of this violation and the law must be amended for everyone”. In other words, ECHR reached the conclusion that the restrictive law is not justified and has political connotations.
Claimant Alexandru Tanase says that part of the civil servants who had Romanian citizenship were fired from MAI, from the Customs Department etc., while others, with the same citizenship, kept their jobs. This shows how people can be blackmailed and controlled”.
Moldova’s governmental agent at ECHR, Vladimir Grosu, does not rule out the possibility for the Government from Chisinau to challenge the decision of the Court in the Big Chamber: “We do not rule out the possibility to amend the law, because the Court’s verdict must be implemented nationwide, somehow. Solutions to challenge or not to challenge the ECHR decision shall be proposed. They will be subsequently reviewed...”
According to the law voted by the Communists and the Christian-Democrats, individuals with double or multiple citizenship cannot accede to the position of head of state, member of the Government, deputy in the Parliament, district president, member of the Central Electoral Commission and Court of Auditors, judge, employee of the Intelligence and Security Division or member of the Board of Directors of the National Bank. (DIVERS - www.divers.ro)