Romania

Basic rights of the rural population obstructed by Highway Code

For some time Article 71 of the Romanian Highway Code forbids vehicles drawn by animals from using the National Highways. FECTU, the European federation for draught horses and their use, which unites fifteen associations for the protection and promotion of draught horses in seven European countries, is fully aware of the problems posed by the simultaneous use of public roads by draught horses and motor vehicles.

Nonetheless FECTU cannot accept that the solution to the questions arising could consist in a dogmatic and wholesale ban on the use by some 900,000 working animals of a network of roads totalling more than 14,000 km, that is 20% of the roads lying outside cities and towns. In places there are no roads other than National Highways. Very often the ban on travelling on Highways prevents users from passing from one minor or local road onto another to go to their work in the fields and forests. Romania has 4.5 million private farm businesses which comprise on average 1.6 hectares (3.8 acres) and very often use draught horses or oxen. In addition the ban on animal traction is aimed directly at the Roma minority, which represents 2.5% of the population. Very probably there exists in no other European country a regulation having such serious if not harmful consequences for a very large part of its citizens.

It should be possible to find other solutions taking account of both the growth of motorised traffic and the still very widespread traditional means of transport. Indeed it is most likely that forbidding the use of highways by horse drawn vehicles will have among its consequences a reduction in the income of the rural population and an increase in unemployment, a deterioration in the position of the Roma, and a serious threat to the attraction for tourists offered by Romanian traditions. On the other hand, the use of draught animals is a source of renewable energy, proven by centuries of use and almost free of charge.

This decision is all the more surprising in that in the most industrialised nations of Europe the trend is towards the re-introduction of horse drawn vehicles in towns.

FECTU invites the Romanian authorities to reconsider the problems raised by Article 71 of the Romanian Highway Code to find a more equitable solution.

Issued by FECTU www.fectu.org
Luxemburg 22 January 2008