Message from Romania

A year and a half has passed since Romania entered the European Union and it’s still too soon to review what membership has brought, since integration is not a hic et nunc that immediately produces its effects, but a process whose signs will only become visible at a later stage. Perhaps very much later in the case of Romania, which has so much ground to recover, and not only from an economic or legal point of view. It’s a country that must in the first place rediscover itself, re-define its values, its culture, its identity and its ideals, which have suffered and still suffer in this period of upheaval since 1989 almost to the point of suffering a regression. Romanian policy still follows the strategy of false appearances and the pursuit of partisan interests to the detriment of the common good, and gives the impression of being stuck in a tunnel from which it no longer seems able to get out. It’s no wonder that voter turnout continues to decline, as shown by the last local elections this spring with less than 50% of the electorate bothering to vote. People no longer have any confidence in the country’s rulers and don’t feel protected by the authorities. The continuous emigration of Romanians is no cause for surprise, either. Though it has not increased since Romania entered the EU in January 2007, as shown by the studies of the Romanian Institute of Statistics, it still remains a constant. For so many Romanians the integration of their country in the EU has meant free circulation and especially free access to the labour market in EU member states. But this latter benefit has largely remained for the time being on hold, because access is limited in the countries considered “preferred”: Italy, France, Germany, and the UK. People also expected from integration a positive change in their life, but this hope has been disappointed: they have been forced to cope with an ever more expensive life, with prices almost on a par with those in Italy or France, whereas the average salary does not exceed 350 euros per month.The almost forced integration of Romania in the European Union has found the one as ill-prepared as the other. So it is no cause for surprise that after Romania’s entry into the EU, two of its main problems – the integration of Roma (Romanies) in society and delinquency – have become “Europe’s problems”. But does not this too form part of integration? The EU has often warned Romania, accusing it of discriminatory treatment or of marginalizing the Roma, and has obliged it to implement programmes to promote their integration in society. In actual fact, the Roma are more ignored than discriminated against in Romania. They are considered by society pariahs with whom it is better to have nothing to do: in schools, until recently, Rom children studied segregated from Romanian children. The authorities – ever since the times of Ceausescu – created for them isolated and peripheral housing sites and they have been treated neither as citizens nor as human beings with rights of their own. Today, the Western world is horrified by the fact that begging or stealing – which at one time were means of subsistence for Roma who were deprived of education and found it difficult to find work – have become ‘trades’, handed down from father to son. The current approach of the Romanian government is emblematic of a shift in Romanian policy: its hand in some sense “forced” by EU policies, it has responded to the recent anti-Roma decisions of the Italian government by calling gipsies for the first time “Romanian citizens of Rom ethnic origin” and has appealed for respect of their human dignity. Had it not been forced by the European Community, the Romanian government would have done nothing to ensure respect for the rights of its Rom minority and their human dignity. And from this point of view perhaps it is the Roma who derive most advantage from Romania’s integration in the European Union. The question of rights and human dignity should also be extended to the many immigrants who are forced to work on the black market, forced into “illegality”, and who in some countries are victims not only of exploitation by unscrupulous employers, but also of a system that treats them as criminals. Whoever goes to work in the member state of the EU knows that a labour contract involves benefits: healthcare, pension contributions, child benefits, and so on. In Romania irregular (black market) work is now increasingly refused, precisely on account of these benefits that are denied. If the EU wishes to be like a big family, perhaps it ought to speak more often of acceptance, brotherhood, attention to people, and act accordingly. United Europe consists not just of treaties, but also of peoples, of persons. If we want Romania “to raise itself”, let us first help Romanians “to raise themselves”.