Romanian Justice minister Robert Cazanciuc unveiled during Thursday’s meeting with EC First Vice-President Frans Timmermans that the Parliament in Bucharest contemplates debating a law that would allow gay marriages.
Within the dialogue with Romanian and Bulgarian citizens on EU matters in Ruse, a Romanian participant said that LGBT members are considered “second rate” citizens in some countries, opining that Romania would most probably veto a potential draft bringing gay marriages under regulation.
Romanian Justice minister answered that several years ago gay relationships were considered a crime in Romania. “Now we consider debating a law that allows this kind of marriage. So, it has been an incredible mentality evolution in the past years in Romania, too,” Cazanciuc said.
He reminded there is also a body that is sanctioning any form of discrimination on this matter (editor note: National Council for Combating Discrimination). “We have a spectacular evolution on this issue in the past years, it’s a matter of mentality that has to be debated in the public space,” the minister added.
In his turn, EC First Vice-President Frans Timmermans mentioned he supported LGBT rights, reminding he had asked for the gay marriages adoption while he was MP in the Dutch Parliament. “We have been the first country in the world that accepted this thing when other states said it was craze (…) Each member state must decide for itself (….) Sometimes it takes a little longer, you cannot push things, but you can talk about it,” the European top official said, adding that EC has no responsibility on the issue, but it can support the cause.