Initiative to allow territorial autonomy for Szeklers' Counties enters parliamentary debate in Romania

A Romanian House of Deputies commission will on Tuesday launch the debate on a bill initiated by a Democratic Hungarian (UDMR) MP on the territorial autonomy of the Szeklers’ Counties – the Romanian counties with a large Szekler (ethnic Hungarian) community. The bill proposes a return to an administrative organisation that includes a local president, parliament and government, with Hungarian language admitted as official language along the Romanian language.

The initiative limits the autonomous region to the current counties of Covasna and Harghita in Central Romania, as well as the historic chair of Mures, which belongs to Mures county.

The parliamentary commission has to issue a report on the bill, which will then go for a vote in the House, then in the Senate for a final vote.