It will be possible for Transylvanian Hungarians to fill out birth, marriage and death certificates in Hungarian if the lower house of the Romanian Parliament accepts the proposal of the Democratic Alliance for Hungarians in Romania (known by its Hungarian acronym RMDSZ), Attila Cseke, chairman of the RMDSZ Senate faction, announced on Monday.
According to the alliance’s newsletter, the upper house of the Romanian Parliament, the Senate, was discussing a draft decision in which the state was about to modify the system of documentation released by the registry offices. The new regulations enact a simpler and more modern procedure as well as introduce digital registration.
According to the proposal made by RMDSZ during these discussions, which the Senate has now already accepted, the registry offices will be able to release bilingual documents upon request.
“A similar regulation is in force in the Highlands (Southern Slovakia) and Serbia. We are not asking for anything for which there is not already an example in other parts of Europe. The extension of the right to use our native language is a rightful pursuit of the Transylvanian Hungarian community.”
– emphasized the RMDSZ senator.
The draft also includes the right, approved by the civil code, for young couples to get married in Hungarian and which forbids any modifications of their personal data written on birth certificates. (For example, the modification of a Hungarian name to its Romanian version.)
Although the Senate has accepted the proposal, it can only come into force after the lower house of Parliament accepts it and the President then proclaims it as well.
Title image: Birth certificates might become bilingual in the future for Transylvanian-Hungarian newborns. (Photo: Vincze Haáz/szekelyhon.ro)
