Romania Might Cut Child Allowance Unless Parents Send Kids To School

The Roma minority is a sensitive issue for Romania and authorities may resort to harsh measures like halt state child allowance payments unless parents send their children to school, President Traian Basescu told OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek Tuesday.

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Basescu met with Vollebaek Tuesday at the presidential palace in Bucharest.

The Romanian president said Romania takes responsibility for all its citizens, adding Europe has a lack of understanding of how deep the Roma issue is in Romania.

"We are not trying to raise the issue to European proportions but, at the same time, we need cooperation at a European level," said Basescu, adding he welcomes any suggestion toward solving the Roma issue.

"We'll start being tougher; for instance, we'll stop paying child allowance unless parents send their children to school. We've been very flexible so far but we need to do something," the head of state added.

The OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek started a two-day official visit to Romania Monday.

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