The Soros Foundation takes note of the explanation given by the National Liberal Party concerning its position on the mining project from RoÅŸia Montană. We appreciate the gesture of publicly assuming a clear position and we hope that other political parties will follow this example. 

While waiting for the moment when more parties will come out of the well-balanced expectation on the RoÅŸia Montană topic, we would like to remind them that any discussion about this mining project is useless in the absence of institutional transparency and of a correct informing of the public. A correct evaluation of the cost-benefit report on long term is impossible in the absence of information on the conditions stipulated by contract and the responsibilities assumed by the Romanian state. 

To this regard, maintaining the confidential information about the contracts that lie at the basis of this project, can not be in any way justified and must stop. As in any other moments, the Romanian political parties can choose between supporting or sabotaging the principle of transparency. Disclosing the secret of the contracts that made the RoÅŸia Montană case possible offers an eloquent opportunity to the political parties to step across rhetoric in serving the public interest, by respecting the citizens’ fundamental right to know.