MP Biro Rozalia of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, told a news conference in Oradea on Wednesday that Romania wants to help Ukraine protect the cultural heritage affected by the war, according to Agerpres.

She added that the subject will be discussed at a meeting of the General Committee on Cultural Affairs of the Central European Initiative (CEI), which will take place in Krakow, Poland, September 26- 27, where Rozalia Biro will lead the Romanian parliamentary delegation, made up of seven people.

She said that the meeting is a result of a March 2022 extraordinary meeting of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict related to the 1954 UNESCO convention by the same name.

„The committee concluded that the armed conflict in Ukraine is a real danger to monuments in Ukraine, and a statement was adopted regarding the protection of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. In it, it is expressly requested that the aggressor (Russia) meet its obligations arising from the UNESCO convention, the destruction caused to the Ukrainian cultural heritage was strongly condemned and it was decided to grant emergency international assistance to Ukraine, namely a package of measures financed from the CEI fund for the protection of cultural heritage in the amount of 50,000 US dollars. Also, extended protection was granted for a series of cultural assets in Ukraine,” said Biro.

Also discussed: the need to form an operational working group for the implementation of emergency measures, marking cultural assets with the distinctive UNESCO heritage sign; granting temporary refuge to certain assets that should eventually be taken out of the country for safekeeping, as well as the centralisation of the inventory on Ukrainian cultural heritage.

The meeting in Krakow will look into whether or not these decisions taken by the committee are sufficient and whether or not the member states in this regional format propose other means to help Ukraine.

Biro said that in her capacity as chair of the CEI Economic Committee she intends to organise in November, in the Romanian Parliament, a parliamentary meeting of the committee to tackle the economic consequences of the war on Ukraine as the main theme.

Agerpres