The twelve new members

Together with Bulgaria, Romania is the last state in order of time to have entered the European Union. She became an EU member on 1st January 2007. Another ten countries – Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – became members in 2004 (for the articles already published on the countries of EU enlargement see SIR Europe nos. 19-23-34-37/2008). Bucharest was thus able to celebrate an event that would have seemed unimaginable just a decade before. But the country’s social and economic difficulties persist and the climate of tension vis-à-vis its various communities of immigrants makes the transition particularly delicate. SIR Europe asked Andrei Serban, mayor of Slanic Moldova, and Bogdan Seto, civil servant responsible for liaison with the European Union on behalf of the Provincial Council of Bacau, to comment on Romania’s situation today.Only 15 months have passed since Romania became a member of the European Union: how would you describe the influence that this event is having on the country’s social and economic life?“The 1st January 2007 is a date of extreme historical, political, economic and social importance for Romania as a nation-state and for the Romanians as a people. It marks the beginning of a new era of political and social alliance, and the end of the period of transition following the revolution of December 1989. Entry into the European Union is felt at various levels of daily life, from the goods we consume to the roads we drive on, from the educational opportunities to which we have access to the policies we adopt. On the economic front we are going through a period of far-reaching changes: the transition from a state-controlled to a market economy, access to new quality products, the adoption of specific qualitative and environmental standards, the chance to forge bilateral and multilateral economic relations, and the exploitation of new markets for some local products”.What are the sectors in which Romania intends to improve, and what are your expectations with regard to future internal developments?“Romania is showing one of the most dynamic growth rates in Europe, but some sectors are having to cope with understandable difficulties. Agriculture, after having solved the problem of the fragmentation of properties, is a sector in which improvements are needed. Tourism, thanks to the new infrastructures that are now being built, is rapidly expanding. Industry, after going through difficult periods, is now progressing thanks to foreign investments: the same goes for the building sector. Wages, once they have been standardized with the levels of the European Union, will permit better internal development”.Will the new international scenario and Romania’s presence in most of the international organizations enable the voice and the problems of the Romanian people to be better heard?“Full membership of the European Union and NATO, the 35 Romanian members of the European Parliament, and the presence of a growing number of regional and provincial representatives in Brussels and various local representatives in the Committee of the Regions of the EU, show in a decisive and positive fashion how the interests of the Romanian people are being represented at the highest levels. The fact that the voice of Romania is being heard from Bucharest to Brussels, and even in Washington, is a sign of a strong trans-Atlantic alliance and real partnership with the European Union that permits our country to express its own political will in an ever more complex world, which has had to tackle significant changes over the last two decades”. Fact FileThe Republic of Romania, independent and internationally recognized since 1878, joined the European Union on 1st January 2007, three years after its entry into NATO. Romania’s 22 million inhabitants (two million of whom live in the capital, Bucharest) place the country in seventh ranking among EU member states in terms of size of population. It is estimated that there are over two million Romanians in the diaspora; they have emigrated mainly to Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and North America. Over 85% of the population belong to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which is autonomous from the other Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe. Catholics of Roman rite amount to 4.7%, Protestants 3,7%, Pentecostals 1.5% and Catholics of Greek rite 0.9%. There are some 67,500 practising Muslims, mainly of Turkish stock. In Brussels, Romania is represented by the Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban and by 35 MEPs (18 of whom belong to the European People’s Party, 10 to the European Socialist Party, 6 to the Liberals and 1 to the Greens). With the objective of increasing GDP by at least 15% in the period 2007-2013, and creating and maintaining 150,000 new jobs, Romania benefits from allocations from EU Structural Funds amounting to just under 20 billion euros; the priority sectors are the development of infrastructures, the competitiveness of the economy, human capital, the efficiency of the public administration and balanced territorial development.