1.5. Town hall inscriptions

for students who chose to study in a language other than Romanian. The High Court of Cassation and Justice (the supreme court of Romania) ruled that this practice is not discriminatory. In December, 2019, following a final court ruling, Hungarian professors and students lost the lawsuit they had initiated back in 2018 against the university for deciding to merge without the consent of the Hungarian leadership.

The case of the Hungarian line of study at the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely is an inevitable pivotal point of the Hungarian politics in Transylvania, given that jeopardizing the Hungarian-language based higher education can have unforeseeable consequences

Despite the legal requirements, no progress has been made regarding the Hungarian department of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely. At the inaugurual meeting of the Senate of the University elected for the 2020-2024 term, the Rector of the University made a public promise to improve the relations with the Hungarian Department. It is unfortunate that this has not been solved so far.

In the spring of 2020, the only undergraduate accredited educational program, the Hungarian line of study at the Department of Medicine was re-accredited. However, the enrolment numbers offered by the Committee of ARACIS (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) for the Hungarian students significantly dropped: from 200 to 120. On the other hand, they increased this number for the Romanian students from 270 to 300.

According to the conducted analyses, the ARACIS Committee had made a mistake in the accounting of some essential indicators. For example, they did not take into consideration the number of lecturers at the department and the potentially advertisable and existing jobs. If they had taken these into account, according to the simulations, the maximum enrolment number could have been approximately 170.

Regarding this matter, there have been several consultations with Senator Zoltán Novák and State Counselor László Borbély. Hunor Kelemen, the president of UDMR/RMDSZ, signaled the obvious unjustice to the then Minister of Education, Monica Anisie and asked for notifying the ARACIS Committee about this issue. The Rector of the University filed a complaint which received majority support within ARACIS, however, the necessary quorum did not come together at that meeting. Thus, the Hungarian leaders dit not meet the deadline for filing an appeal. Observations and recommendations: In light of the increasingly problematic situation of medical training in Hungarian in Romania, this issue can only be satisfactorily solved, if the provisions of the 2011 National Law on Education - which states that higher education institutions that are designated as being multicultural by the Ministry of Education have to establish separate faculties or departments for minority students - are unequivocally implemented. However, in the last ten years almost no steps were taken into that direction. This would solve numerous problems and anomalies that the Hungarian line of study is currently facing, but most importantly it would secure and strengthen the multicultural character of the university and safeguard the future of medical training in Hungarian. Regarding Romanian higher education in minority languages in general, this should be as broad as possible, addressing the needs of the minority communities. Therefore, higher education in minority languages should include not only the fields of study that are directly linked to the survival of a minority community, such as training teachers, but also the ones that are linked to the development of that community and of the region that they inhabit, and which are traditionally taught almost exclusively in the state language, such as engineering sciences.

2. 1.3. Attempts to close a Hungarian school resurface

There is still uncertainty when it comes to the situation of the II. Rákóczi Ferenc RomanCatholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely. The Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely ceased to operate as an independent institution in 2018. In October 2016 the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) launched an investigation against Zsolt Tamási, the head of the school, and Ștefan Someșan, the former school inspector because of alleged illegalities committed during the establishment of the school in 2014. In February of 2018, the Romanian Parliament adopted a law on the reestablishment of the school, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court a month later. Finally, the school could reopen as the II. Rákóczi Ferenc RomanCatholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely in accordance with Government Decree No. 48/2018 and Decree No. 4320 of the Ministry of Education adopted on the 9th of August, 2018. After these two lawsuits were initiated, these sought the annulment of the Government Decree and the revocation of the Ministerial Decree.

Following this the Unirea High School, its parents’ community (Representative Council of Parents Within the Unirea National College) the Civic Association for Dignity in Europe, led by Dan Tanasă and the People’s Movement Party, led by its executive chairman, Marius Pașcan, attacked the Government Decree No. 48/2018 in the Administrative Court, a decree, which made the establishment of the school possible under the auspices of the Bólyai High School.

On the 15th of January, 2020, they adjourned the lawsuit, until the Constitutional Court deliberates on the constitutional objections, as the Târgu Mureș Court of Appeal raised a constitutional objection against the Emergency Ordinance No. 2018/48 of the Romanian Government, which together with other three legislative amendments permitted the re-establishment of the

II. Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School through a Ministerial Decree. However, the Court annulled the Decree that made the functioning of the school legal.

This has been appealed by the leaders of the school, so the Bucharest High Court will rule on the case in 2022, most probably after the investigation concerning the constitutionality of the other lawsuit. The management of the school repeatedly asked for the case to be heard at a different court on the grounds of conflict of interests, since the judge assigned to the case was herself a member of the parents’ community of the Unirea High School. All objections concerning the incompatibility of the judge were rejected. The case is still ongoing.

The Romanian state continuously tries to impede the functioning of the Rákóczi Ferenc Roman-Catholic High School in Târgu Mureș/Marosvásárhely

2.2. Discrimination in administrative territorial disputes

Another concerning issue regarding the Hungarian community is related to certain administrative territorial disputes, where the parties involved are not treated equally.

Regarding the border dispute between Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós, one of the biggest cities of Harghita/Hargita County in Szeklerland, which is mostly Hungarian-populated, and the locality of Bicaz Chei/Békás-szoros, part of the Romanian region of Moldova, has lasted nearly ten years.

The legal debate is related to the Békás Gorge, which stretches along the border of Harghita/ Hargita and Neamț counties, and the territory belonging to it.

According to a law from 1996 all localities had to register their boundaries in a cadastral survey. In 1998 the cadastral offices of Harghita/Hargita and Neamț counties drew up a record. According to this, the gorge and its surrounding area belonged to Cheile Bicazului. The administrations of Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós and Harghita/Hargita County have been trying to pursue the annulment of this record and to rectify the county borders for a long time. In 2019, the Prahova Tribunal decided in favour of Harghita/Hargita County and the cadastral record from 1998 was considered invalid. Neamt County and Cheile Bicazului appealed the decision at the Ploieşti Court. According to the Ploieşti Court of Appeals’ ruling in 2020, the territorial and administrative rights of the Békás Gorge were granted to the municipality of Bicaz Chei, which, besides other things, means that Gheorgheni/Gyergyószentmiklós cannot count on the tax revenues coming from the tourism and trade there.

The borders of administrative territorial units are sometimes drawn without any consideration to the ethnic composition of the localities in question, as the example of the ruling connected to the Békás Gorge shows

According to Csaba Borboly, the President of the Harghita County Council, Harghita/Hargita County and its prefect were excluded from the proceedings of the lawsuit so that the evidences would not be taken into consideration, even though several laws stipulate that in the case of border disputes the counties concerned must be involved.

This situation has been permanently settled given that it includes the decision of the Ploiești Court of Appeal, which rejected Harghita County’s application for revision, thus not changing its previous judgment and excluding Hargita/Harghita County from the lawsuit.

In spite of various attempts to overthrow the decision in this respect it seems that the matter is permanently settled in favour of Neamț county.