euro|topics - Romanian Securitate council faces closure

04/07/2009

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Main focus of Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Romanian Securitate council faces closure

Last week, the Romanian constitutional court ordered the National Council for the Study of Securitate Archives (CNSAS) to be dismantled. The court declared that the council was acting like a legal institution as it was delivering verdicts. Will the Securitate files once more disappear in a secret archive?

Romania Libera - Romania

The government should respond to the decision of the constitutional court, demands Ion Vianu. "It would be incomprehensible if the Securitate archive became secret once again. This also applies to the archive of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR), which is to be made accessible to the public shortly. If the agency is in fact dismantled, it would lead to isolation within the EU, and we would become a post-Soviet state. For some, this might be opportune, but it would be incompatible with our EU status. We can only hope that the attempt to close the agency down leads to its functioning more effectively. ... In the end, the agency need not pass judgement at all. It must simply describe what can be found in the archives. It is then up to the public to judge." (06/02/2008)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

The issue of public access to the Securitate files does not mobilise the masses, Martin Woker regrets, even though Romania risks EU sanctions in the field of justice. "Dan Voiculescu, the successful plaintiff, had been unmasked as a civilian informant of the state security system. Under Ceausescu, he had had a high-ranking position in foreign trade. Directly following the transformation, he established a media empire which ensured him and his insignificant Conservative Party decisive influence in the political realm. His critics regard him as the most repugnant of all the turncoats in the country. ... Observers in Bucharest consider the fact that he, of all people, succeeded in sabotaging the investigating agency as further evidence that the sinister characters of the old system are gradually being rehabilitated." (06/02/2008)

Der Standard - Austria

Constantin Ticu Dumitrescu, initiator and member of the agency to investigate the Securitate, criticised the EU for its silence regarding the dismantling of the agency in an interview with Laura Balomiri. "The constitutional court annulled the decisions of the agency retroactively, which is not permissible according to any legal norm in the world. Our activities are now completely blocked because they have become very threatening for many politicians and officials in the justice system. ... Now, as we are in command of two million files, they decided that the only way to rescue themselves is to dismantle the agency. Before, they had not dared to pull off anything like that, now they are doing it shamelessly, with Europe's consent. This proves that joining the EU has helped these people, as the EU has demonstrated several times that it is not interested in uncovering communist structures." (06/02/2008)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, February 6, 2008

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