Any progress that has been achieved to date by Focus on Romania in the area of human rights reform in Romania has resulted from our lobbying of the people who should be solving this problem -- the politicians and officials in the European Parliament and the EU Commission. In particular, the Enlargement Commission has allowed Romania to progress to a stage where that country will join the EU in January 2007, without any obligation being imposed on Romania to clean up its act with regards to these terrible places. SEE PHOTO
In April 2005, Romania cleared the last hurdle to EU accession when a vote in the European Parliament was passed by a large majority. No conditions were imposed on Romania with regards to this issue, despite prolonged lobbying by concerned human rights organisations. It is now too late to reverse this decision, but the matter comes up for review in November 2005.
It is imperative therefore that as many people as possible request that the Enlargement Commissioner reviews this decision in November and forces Romania to speed up the reform process. We want one million people to e-mail Commissioner Olli Rehn at olli.rehn@cec.eu.int. Please take the time to send the commissioner a brief e-mail as follows, or using any similar form of wording you think appropriate.
Dear Commissioner Rehn, I am very concerned that Romania has been allowed to progress to a point where they will become full members of the EU in 2007, without any conditions being imposed on them regarding reform any of the terrible institutions catering for disabled and mentally ill adults all over Romania. A pilot project that points the way forward is already underway in the Constanta Region; all that is needed is to complete this project and roll it out nationally.
You have made a start by agreeing to requests to raise this issue as part of the review process which you carried out in November of 2005. It is very important now that you follow through and ensure that the initiative you have taken is translated into real progress on the ground. Too often in the past we have seen a huge gap between reports and reality in Romania; please help to ensure that this does not happen this time. Tens of thousands of the most disadvantage people in Europe are relying on you to do the right thing. Please do not let them down.
In addition to sending e-mails to Commissioner Rehn, it would be of assistance if you could also send e-mails to the members of the European Parliament delegation to Romania. This is a sub-group of MEPs that reports back to the parliament on conditions in Romania. Clearly, they have chosen in their reporting to ignore the issue of human rights, despite being briefed on this issue by human rights organisations. You can let them know that you are unhappy with their decision to sweep this issue under the carpet. Their e-mail addresses are as follows......