On 1 January 2007 Romania and Bulgaria finally joined the EU and on both sides of the Danube (which is the natural border between the two countries) the event was described by the large majority of the political class as a "historic moment".

It can be argued that in some offices in Brussels and some old member states, this new wave of accession towards "wild wild East" was received rather with skepticism than euphoria. Although both countries have more or less similar problems, I will focus on Romania, which is my homecountry, presenting its economic, political, and social situation pre and after accession.

Economic situation
Romania is second largest country  (after Poland) in the former communist block and in the last years the country's economy recovered after a long and painful transition. In 2006 the GDP growth was one of the highest in Europe (7.7%) and this positive trend is maintained in the first trimester of 2007 . In April 2007 the unemployment rate in Romania was only 4.5%  which is very low in comparison with Italy, France and Germany for example.
Before 1 of January 2007 the British tabloids launched a concentrated campaign against the "hordes of Romanians"  ready to invade Her Majesty's cities and to steal all the good jobs in the island. The result was that the UK government imposed restrictions to the labor force from Romania and Bulgaria and now the British economy is the one that probably suffers the most . In fact there are reports in the media that shows that Romania is facing already a shortage in the labor force and local entrepreneurs are looking for Chinese workers ready to replace Romanians who left already years ago for better jobs in the West . There are no clear data but it seems that approximately 1 million Romanians are working outside the country mostly in Italy and Spain due to linguistic and cultural ties, mentalities etc. In Torino where Romanians represent one of the largest communities of stranieri the webpage of the municipality has already a version in Romanian language .
Some old EU member states (Sweden and Finland) and most of those that joined in 2004 didn't impose any restriction on free movement of labor starting with January 2007 and they didn't face a wave of Romanian immigrants in these six months that passed. This can be seen as a paradox of the accession but the fact of the matter is that who really wanted to leave did it already years ago when both country's political and economical situation were unstable. Now the local economy grows fast and if the problem of corruption is resolved and the reform of the judicial system is done properly I believe that in few years we will witness the return home of many Romanians. In fact these two issues represents at the moment the main concern in Brussels and (therefore) also in Bucharest.

Political situation
Unfortunately, most of Romania's political parties failed to reform themselves in the last decade and this has a negative impact on the entire political environment. There is still too much incompetence, lack of responsibility and corruption among politicians. Romanian governments are used to feel the EU pressure first and then to react in the proper way.
This month EU has to evaluate the progresses made by Romania since the accession and to decide whether it is necessary to impose the so-called "safeguard clause" in sensitive areas like justice.  Despite the urgent reforms that were waiting for implementation the time that passed since the accession was spent by Romanian politicians in a grotesque political fight between the main actors - president, prime-minister and parliament.
The elections for the European Parliament were postponed for autumn, the president was suspended by the parliament and the prime minister Tariceanu sacked Ms. Monica Macovei, the most efficient ministry of justice since the fall of the communism,  and formed a new minority government that everybody is wondering how will survive. In the national referendum organized on 19 of May, 74% of the voters rejected the impeachment of president Basescu   so "much ado about nothing". The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, urges Romanian politicians to stick to the path of reform but the referendum has not put an end to the power struggle in Bucharest. However, it is expected that despite their mutual aversion the prime-minister and president will try to find ways of collaboration till the (anticipated?) elections which shall resolve the stupid political game they play.  The present minority government consists only of National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians from Romania (UDMR) which governs in different coalitions since 1996.

National Minorities
Romania has numerous national minority groups including a big Hungarian minority concentrated in Transylvania but very active from a political point of view at the national level and a large Roma population scattered all over the territory but without any influence in the political game. Bucharest likes to speak about a "Romanian model of minority protection,"  while in Transylvania there are still Hungarians convinced that the state is threatening their national identity, and that territorial autonomy based on ethnic criteria is the only solution for the future of their community.  Usually the truth lies somewhere in between. Ten years ago, there were no legal provisions for the protection of national minorities except the abstract constitutional principle on the right to preserve one's national identity. Today, a person belonging to a national minority can rely on a specific legal framework in order to defend his/her linguistic rights regarding public administration and justice, and to take advantage of the right to study in his/her mother tongue. On the other hand, it is clear that there is still much space for development and improvement. Romania was one of the candidate countries that received one of the highest levels of pressure from Brussels regarding the protection of minority rights. I must acknowledge the role of EU conditionality in shaping Romanian minority policies, though it yielded positive result mostly when it met a European-oriented political agenda coupled with political will.

20.06.07

Constantin Sergiu

Useful Links:

For details about Romania see http://www.aboutromania.com

Official data of Romanian National Institute of Statistics

Official data of Romanian National Institute of Statistics. 

The Sun, "See you all here in January".

The Times, „Farms need migrants or 'fruit will be left to rot'. 

International Herald Tribune, "Romania's economy threatened by worker shortage". 

The website of Comune di Torino (Roman Edition)

BBC, "The free movement of labour map". 

Hotnews.ro "EC President Barroso: No decision yet on Romania safeguard clause".

Wien International, "Romania: coalition government collapses due to EU reforms"
 
"Romanian President addressed the European Parliamentarians in Strasbourg" by Irina Cristea, Jurnalul National, 26 January 2006.  

Divers Bulletin no. 21 (149) / 7 June 2005, "Laszlo Tokes appeals the public opinion for non-enforcing the law on the minorities"