Romania waiting for the windfall

There's been much talk about what EU integration will bring to Romania. Money of course is one thing. There'll be more funds than Romania can probably absorb. Then there's a the huge number of norms, regulations and standards that must be complied with, not very pleasant. That’s what the average Romanian knows about the European Union. What less Romanians ask themselves is what Romania will bring to the EU. Iulian Muresan from RRI, in Bucharest attempts an answer:

A café in downtown Bucharest was chosen by RFI in Romania as the right place for an informal, but serious debate about what Romania will bring to the EU, once it becomes a member state in January 2007. Among the participants in the debate were Minister of European Integration Anca Boagiu, Deputy Head of the European Commission Delegation in Romania Onno Simons, French Ambassador to Bucharest Hervé Bolot, Secretary of State with the Romanian Foreign Ministry Cristian Preda, journalists and students.

So what can Romania bring to the European Union? Minister of European Integration Anca Boagiu started from the broad geo-strategic picture. Romania's geo-strategic position in the Black Sea area and the fact it will become the second external border of the EU and will play an important role with regard to the security of the European Union:

“Romania wants to be a partner of the EU member states. Romania joins the EU when the union sails through rather troubled waters. Against this background Romania wants to bring solutions to the EU, not further problems."

Romania will be the 7th biggest country of the EU, with a population of almost 22 million. It is estimated that up to 2 million Romanians are already working in EU member states, and they’re doing well. Onno Simons, the Deputy Head of the European Commission delegation in Romania regards Romanians not as a threat to Europe but one of its main assets:

"It's going to be a lot of hardworking people. That's good, because we do need a lot of people, hard workers, skilled workers to keep Europe competitive. Also a market of 23 million consumers. And I can say, a great number of Euro- enthusiasts, because not in every member state of the European Union is regard for the EU as high as in Romania."

Romania has now a European Commissioner. Deputy integration minister Leonard Orban will take over from Jan Figel who was in charge of education, training, culture and multilingualism. French ambassador to Bucharest Hervé Bolot underlined the importance of this portfolio and warned against the absence of knowledge and debate about Europe, which was felt when the European draft constitution was rejected in France and the Netherlands.

“The portfolio for education, training, culture and multilingualism is extremely important in the European Union. We count on Romania to bring into schools, universities and the media genuine education about Europe.”

Another positive thing that Romania brings to the Union is a good economic growth rate. The IT industry is one of Romania’s most dynamic and yet, Cristian Preda, a Secretary of State with the Romanian Foreign Ministry places his bet on the future of Romanian agriculture, which has been neglected so far:

“Our agriculture has not grown very much in the last 16 years. But I think it will be very interesting to see in a few years from now that agriculture and not the IT industry might bring something useful to Europe.”

So there's many good things that Romania can bring into Europe, but there's also at least one really bad thing. And that is corruption. Transparency International has just published its Corruption Perceptions Index, according to which Romania is the 84th most corrupt country of 163 in the world. With a score of 3.1 where 0 is the highest degree of corruption and 10 no corruption at all, in January 2007, Romania will be the most corrupt country in the European Union.

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