On Monday 29 February 2016 the General Council of the Bucharest Municipality (CGMB) approved the establishment of the Department for "Integration of Foreigners and Diversity". The new department will be directly subordinated to the general mayor of Bucharest and will have 18 positions, of which 3 for management.

According to the press release published on the Bucharest City Hall web page, the Municipality aims through this department to create a proper framework for the inclusion of foreigners in the local community by creating an information point dedicated exclusively to foreign citizens, facilitating their access to data provided by other central and local institutions in Romania and organising free Romanian language courses. The new department will also issue public policies for diversity issues such as habitat, education, entrepreneurship, health etc.

A step forward is thus made towards strengthening the institutional capacity of the local administration following the model of big European capitals (Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Oslo etc.), members of the Council of Europe programme - Intercultural Cities.

The Municipality's initiative was welcomed by the Council of Europe through a support letter: "we hope the decision to establish this department will be taken soon, as the strategic and thorough inclusion of foreigners in the local community will be very important for the city management (...) and for building positive relations between foreigners and the host Romanian society", shows the press release of Bucharest City Hall.

The CGMB decision may be consulted at the following address:
http://www4.pmb.ro/wwwt/institutii/cgmb/sedinte/ordinea_de_zi/db/19_20160229.pdf