PDGS
Partnership for Democratic Governance and Security

ROMANIA. BACKGROUND NOTES, JULY 2000

Official Name: Romania

Profile

Geography

Area: 237,499 sq. km. (91,699 sq. mi.); somewhat smaller than New York and Pennsylvania combined.
Cities: Capital--Bucharest (pop. 2.02 million). Other cities--Constanta (344,000), Iasi (350,000), Timisoara (327,000), Cluj-Napoca (334,000), Galati (331,000), Brasov (316,000).
Terrain: Consists mainly of rolling, fertile plains; hilly in the eastern regions of the middle Danube basin; and major mountain ranges running north and west in the center of the country, which collectively are known as the Carpathians.
Climate: Moderate.

People

Nationality: Noun and adjective--Romanian(s).
Population: 22.5 million (est.).
Annual population growth rate: -2.7%
Ethnic groups: Romanians 89%, Hungarians 7.1%, Germans 0.5%, Ukrainians, Serbs, Croats, Russians, Turks, and Gypsies 2.5%.
Religions: Orthodox 86.8%, Roman Catholic 5%, Reformed Protestant, Baptist, and Pentecostal 5%, Greek Catholic (Uniate) 1%, Jewish less than 0.1%.
Languages: Romanian (official). Other languages--Hungarian, German.
Education: Years compulsory--10. Attendance--98%. Literacy--98%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (1998 est.)--22/1,000. Life expectancy--men 69.5 yrs., women 73.9 yrs.
Work force (9 million): Agriculture--42.3%. Industry and commerce--38%. Other--34%.

Government

Type: Republic.
Constitution: November 21, 1991.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state), prime minister (head of government), Council of Ministers. Legislative--bicameral Parliament. Judicial-Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, and lower courts.
Subdivisions: 40 counties plus the city of Bucharest.
Political parties: Political parties recognized as such with members in Parliament include the Party of Social Democracy of Romania (PDSR); Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR), a coalition of the National Peasant-Christian Democrat Party (PNTCD); the National Liberal Party (PNL); the Democratic Party (PD); the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR); Social Democrat Party (PSDR); Social Democratic Party (PSDR); the Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR); and the Greater Romania Party (PRM). There are a number of other political parties, some with members in Parliament, which are officially designated as Independents in Parliament. These smaller political parties include the Alternative Party (APR), the Union of Right Wing Forces (UFD), and the National Party of Romania (PNR).
Suffrage: Universal from age 18.
Defense: 1.8% of GDP.

Economy

GDP: 1997, $32.1 billion; 1998, $38.2 billion.
Annual GDP growth rate: 1997, 6.6%; 1998; 7.3%, 1999 est., 4.5%.
Per Capita GDP: 1998, $1,695.6; 1999 est., $1,328.8.
Natural resources: Oil, timber, natural gas, coal, salt, iron ore.
Agriculture (1998): 16.4% of GDP. Products--corn, wheat, potatoes, oilseeds, vegetables, livestock.
Industry (1998): 40.1%: Types--machine building, mining, construction materials, metal production and processing, chemicals, food processing, textiles, clothing.
Services (1998): 43.4%.
Trade (1998): Exports--$8.3 billion: textiles, chemicals, light manufactures, wood products, fuels, processed metals. Major markets--Germany, Italy, France, and Turkey. Imports--$11.8 billion: Imports--fuel, cooking coal, iron ore, machinery, wheat, cotton, and potatoes. Major suppliers--Italy, Germany, Russia, France, and U.K.
Exchange rate (January 2000): 18,288 lei=US$1.

Geography

Extending inland halfway across the Balkan Peninsula and covering a large elliptical area of 237,499 square kilometers (91,699 sq. mi.), Romania occupies the greater part of the lower basin of the Danube River system and the hilly eastern regions of the middle Danube basin. It lies on either side of the mountain systems collectively known as the Carpathians, which form the natural barrier between the two Danube basins.

Romania's location gives it a continental climate, particularly in the Old Kingdom (east of the Carpathians and south of the Transylvanian Alps) and to a lesser extent in Transylvania, where the climate is more moderate. A long and at times severe winter (December-March), a hot summer (April-July), and a prolonged autumn (August-November) are the principal seasons, with a rapid transition from spring to summer. In Bucharest, the daily minimum temperature in January averages -7oC (20oF), and the daily maximum temperature in July averages 29oC (85oF).

People

About 89% of the people are ethnic Romanians, a group that -- in contrast to its Slav or Hungarian neighbors - traces itself to Latin-speaking Romans, who in the second and third centuries A.D. conquered and settled among the ancient Dacians, a Thracian people. As a result, the Romanian language, although containing elements of Slavic, Turkish, and other languages, is a romance language related to French and Italian.

Primarily a rural, agricultural population, the medieval Wallachians and Moldavians maintained their language and culture despite centuries of rule by foreign princes. Once independent, the population of the unified Romanian state took their modern name to emphasize their connection with the ancient Romans.

Hungarians and Gypsies are the principal minorities, with a declining German population and smaller numbers of Serbs, Croats, Ukrainians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Great Russians, and others. Minority populations are greatest in Transylvania and the Banat, areas in the north and west, which belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War I. Even before union with Romania, ethnic Romanians comprised the overall majority in Transylvania. However, ethnic Hungarians and Germans were the dominant urban population until relatively recently, and still are the majority in a few districts.

Before World War II, minorities represented more than 28% of the total population. During the war that percentage was halved, largely by the loss of the border areas of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (to the former Soviet Union -- now Moldova and Ukraine) and southern Dobrudja (to Bulgaria), as well as by the postwar flight or deportation of ethnic Germans.

Though Romanian troops participated in the destruction of the Jewish communities of Bessarabia and Bukovina, most Jews from Romania properly survived the Holocaust. Mass emigration, mostly to Israel, has reduced the surviving Jewish community from over 300,000 to less than 15,000. In recent years, more than two-thirds of the ethnic Germans in Romania have emigrated to Germany.

Religious affiliation tends to follow ethnic lines, with most ethnic Romanians identifying with the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Greek Catholic or Uniate church, reunified with the Orthodox Church by fiat in 1948, was restored after the 1989 revolution. The 1992 census indicates that 1% of the population is Greek Catholic, as opposed to about 10% prior to 1948. Roman Catholics, largely ethnic Hungarians and Germans, constitute about 5% of the population; Calvinists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and Lutherans make up another 5%. There are smaller numbers of Unitarians, Muslims, and other religions.

Romania's rich cultural traditions have been nourished by many sources, some of which predate the Roman occupation. The traditional folk arts, including dance, wood carving, ceramics, weaving and embroidery of costumes and household decorations, and fascinating folk music, still flourish in many parts of the country. Despite strong Austrian, German, and especially French influence, many of Romania's great artists, such as the painter Nicolae Grigorescu, the poet Mihai Eminescu, the composer George Enescu, and the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, drew their inspiration from Romanian folk traditions.

The country's many Orthodox monasteries, as well as the Transylvanian Catholic and Evangelical Churches, some of which date back to the 13th century, are repositories of artistic treasures. The famous painted monasteries of Bukovina make an important contribution to European architecture.

Poetry and the theater play an important role in contemporary Romanian life. Classic Romanian plays, such as those of Ion Luca Caragiale, as well as works by modern or avant-garde Romanian and international playwrights, find sophisticated and enthusiastic audiences in the many theaters of the capital and of the smaller cities.

History

From about 200 B.C., when it was settled by the Dacians, a Thracian tribe, Romania has been on the path of a series of migrations and conquests. Under the emperor Trajan early in the second century A.D., Dacia was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but was abandoned by a declining Rome less than two centuries later. Romania disappeared from recorded history for hundreds of years, to reemerge in the medieval period as the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Heavily taxed and badly administered under the Ottoman Empire, the two Principalities were unified under a single native prince in 1859, and had their full independence ratified in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. A German prince, Carol of Hohenzollern, was crowned first King of Romania in 1881.

The new state, squeezed between the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, with Slav neighbors on three sides, looked to the West, particularly France, for its cultural, educational, and administrative models. Romania was an ally of the Entente and the U.S. in World War I, and was granted substantial territories with Romanian populations, notably Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bukovina, after the war.

Most of Romania's pre-World War II governments maintained the forms, but not the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. The quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard movement, exploiting nationalism, fear of communism, and resentment of alleged foreign and Jewish domination of the economy, was a key factor in the creation of a dictatorship in 1938. In 1940-41, the authoritarian General Antonescu took control. Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis Powers in June 1941, invading the Soviet Union to recover Bessarabia and Bukovina, which had been annexed in 1940.

In August 1944, a coup led by King Michael, with support from opposition politicians and the army, deposed the Antonescu dictatorship and put Romania's battered armies on the side of the Allies. Romania incurred additional heavy casualties fighting the Germans in Transylvania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.

The peace treaty, signed at Paris on February 10, 1947, confirmed the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, but restored the part of northern Transylvania granted to Hungary in 1940 by Hitler. The treaty required massive war reparations by Romania to the Soviet Union, whose occupying forces left in 1958.

The Soviets pressed for inclusion of Romania's heretofore negligible Communist Party in the post-war government, while non-communist political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. King Michael abdicated under pressure in December 1947, when the Romanian People's Republic was declared, and went into exile.

In the early 1960s, Romania's communist government began to assert some independence from the Soviet Union. Nicolae Ceausescu became head of the Communist Party in 1965 and head of state in 1967. Ceausescu's denunciation of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and a brief relaxation in internal repression helped give him a positive image both at home and in the West. Seduced by Ceausescu's "independent" foreign policy, Western leaders were slow to turn against a regime that, by the late 1970s, had become increasingly harsh, arbitrary, and capricious. Rapid economic growth fueled by foreign credits gradually gave way to wrenching austerity and severe political repression.

After the collapse of communism in the rest of Eastern Europe in the late summer and fall of 1989, a mid-December protest in Timisoara against the forced relocation of a Hungarian minister grew into a country-wide protest against the Ceausescu regime, sweeping the dictator from power. Ceausescu and his wife were executed on December 25, 1989, after a cursory military trial. About 1,500 people were killed in confused street fighting. An impromptu governing coalition, the National Salvation Front (FSN), installed itself and proclaimed the restoration of democracy and freedom. The Communist Party was outlawed, and Ceausescu's most unpopular measures, such as bans on abortion and contraception, were repealed.

Ion Iliescu, a former Communist Party official demoted by Ceausescu in the 1970s, emerged as the leader of the NSF. Presidential and parliamentary elections were held on May 20, 1990. Running against representatives of the pre-war National Peasants' Party and National Liberal Party, Iliescu won 85% of the vote. The NSF captured two-thirds of the seats in Parliament, named a university professor, Petre Roman, as Prime Minister, and began cautious free market reforms.

The new government made a crucial early misstep. Unhappy at the continued political and economic influence of members of the Ceausescu-era elite, anti-Communist protesters camped in University Square in April 1990. When miners from the Jiu Valley descended on Bucharest two months later and brutally dispersed the remaining "hooligans," President Iliescu expressed public thanks, thus convincing many that the government had sponsored the miners' actions. The miners also attacked the headquarters and houses of opposition leaders. The Roman Government fell in late September 1991, when the miners returned to Bucharest to demand higher salaries and better living conditions. A technocrat, Theodor Stolojan, was appointed to head an interim government until new elections could be held.

Parliament drafted a new democratic constitution, approved by popular referendum in December 1991. The FSN split into two groups, led by Ion Iliescu (FDSN) and Petre Roman (FSN) in March 1992; Roman's party subsequently adopted the name Democratic Party (PD). National elections in September 1992 returned President Iliescu by a clear majority, and gave his party, the FDSN, a plurality. With parliamentary support from the nationalist PUNR and PRM parties, and the ex-communist PSM party, a technocratic government was formed in November 1992 under Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu, an economist. The FDSN became the Party of Social Democracy of Romania (PDSR) in July 1993. The Vacaroiu government ruled in coalition with three smaller parties, all of which abandoned the coalition by the time of the November 1996 elections. Emil Constantinescu of the Democratic Convention (CDR) electoral coalition defeated President Iliescu in the second round of voting by 9% and replaced him as chief of state. The PDSR won the largest number of seats in Parliament, but the constituent parties of the CDR joined the Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) to form a centrist coalition government, holding 60% of the seats in Parliament. Victor Ciorbea was named Prime Minister. Ciorba remained in office until March 1998, when he was replaced by Radu Vasile (PNTCD).

Government

Romania's 1991 constitution proclaims Romania a democracy and market economy, in which human dignity, civic rights and freedoms, the unhindered development of human personality, justice, and political pluralism are supreme and guaranteed values. The constitution directs the state to implement free trade, protect the principle of competition, and provide a favorable framework for production. The constitution provides for a President, a Parliament, a Constitutional Court and a separate system of lower courts that includes a Supreme Court.

The two-chamber Parliament, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, is the law-making authority. Deputies and senators are elected for 4-year terms by universal suffrage.

The president is elected by popular vote for a maximum of two 4-year terms. He is the Chief of State, charged with safeguarding the constitution, foreign affairs, and the proper functioning of public authorities. He is supreme commander of the armed forces and chairman of the Supreme Defense Council. According to the constitution, he acts as mediator among the power centers within the state, as well as between the state and society. The president nominates the prime minister, who in turn appoints the government, which must be confirmed by a vote of confidence from Parliament.

The Constitutional Court adjudicates the constitutionality of challenged laws, and decides on appeals from the regular court system concerning the unconstitutionality of laws and decrees. The court consists of nine judges, appointed for a term of 9 years. Three judges are appointed by the Chamber of Deputies, three by the Senate, and three by the president of Romania.

The Romanian legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code. The judiciary is to be independent, and judges appointed by the president are not removable. The president and other judges of the Supreme Court are appointed for a term of 6 years and may serve consecutive terms. Proceedings are public, except in special circumstances provided for by law.

The Ministry of Justice represents "the general interests of society" and defends the legal order as well as citizens' rights and freedoms. The ministry is to discharge its powers through independent, impartial public prosecutors.

For territorial and administrative purposes, Romania is divided into 40 counties and the city of Bucharest. Each county is governed by an elected county council. Local councils and elected mayors are the public administration authorities in villages and towns. The county council is the public administration authority that coordinates the activities of all village and town councils in a county.

The central government appoints a prefect for each county and Bucharest municipality. The prefect is the representative of the government at the local level and directs any public services of the ministries and other central agencies at the county level. A prefect may block the action of a local authority if he deems it unlawful or unconstitutional. The matter is then decided by an administrative court.

Under new legislation in force since January 1999, local councils have control over spending of their allocations from the central government budget as well as authority to raise additional revenue locally. Central government-appointed prefects formerly significant authority over the budget is limited to a review of expenditures to ascertain their constitutionality.

Principal Government Officials

President--Emil Constantinescu
Prime Minister--Mugur Isarescu
State Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs--Petre Roman
Minister of Defense--Victor Babiuc
Minister of Finance--Decebal Traian Remes
Ministry of the Interior--Constantin Dudu Ionescu
State Minister and Minister of Health--Gabor Hadju
Minister of Industry and Commerce--Radu Berceanu
State Minister and Minister of Justice--Valeru Stoica
President of the Council for Economy and Finance and Deputy Prime Minister--Mircea Ciumara
Ambassador to the United States--Mircea Dan Geoana
Permanent Representative to the United Nations--Ion Gorita

Romania maintains an embassy in the United States at 1607 23rd St., NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-332-4846).

Political Conditions

Romania has made great progress in institutionalizing democratic principles, civil liberties, and respect for human rights since the revolution. Nevertheless, the legacy of 44 years of communist rule cannot quickly be eliminated. Membership in the Romanian Communist Party was usually the prerequisite for higher education, foreign travel, or a good job, while the extensive internal security apparatus subverted normal social and political relations. To the few active dissidents, who suffered gravely under Ceausescu, most of those who came forward as politicians after the revolution seemed tainted by cooperation with the previous regime.

Over 200 new political parties sprang up after 1989, gravitating around personalities rather than programs. All major parties espoused democracy and market reforms, but the governing National Salvation Front proposed slower, more cautious economic reforms and a social safety net. In contrast, the opposition's main parties, the National Liberal Party (PNL), and the National Peasant-Christian Democrat Party (PNTCD) favored quick, sweeping reforms, immediate privatization, and reducing the role of the ex-communist elite. There is no law banning communist parties (the Communist Party ceased to exist).

In the 1990 general elections, the FSN and its candidate for presidency, Ion Iliescu, have won with a large majority of the votes (66.31% and, respectively 85.07%). The strongest parties in opposition were the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR), with 7.23%, and the PNL, with 6.41%.

Following the FSN Prime Minister Petre Roman's brutal sacking (due to the miners' descent on Bucharest late 1991), few months before the 1992 general elections, the FSN broke in two. President Iliescu's followers have formed a new party called the Democratic Front of National Salvation (FDSN), while Roman's supporters have kept the party's original title, FSN.

The 1992 local and national elections revealed a political cleavage between major urban centers and the countryside. Rural voters, who were grateful for the restoration of most agricultural land to farmers but fearful of change, strongly favored President Ion Iliescu and the FDSN, while the urban electorate favored the CDR (a coalition made up by several parties -- among which the the PNTCD and the PNL were the strongest -- and civic organizations) and quicker reform. Iliescu easily won reelection over a field of five other candidates. The FDSN won a plurality in both chambers of Parliament. With the CDR, the second-largest parliamentary group, reluctant to take part in a national unity coalition, the FDSN (now PDSR) formed a government under Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu, an economist, with parliamentary support from the PUNR, PRM, and PSM. In January 1994, the stability of the governing coalition became problematic when the PUNR threatened to withdraw its support unless given cabinet portfolios. In August 1994, two members of the nationalist PUNR received cabinet portfolios in the Vacaroiu government. In September, the incumbent justice minister announced that he had become a PUNR member. PRM and PSM left the government in October and December 1995, respectively.

The 1996 local elections realized a major shift in the political orientation of the Romanian electorate. Opposition parties swept Bucharest and most of the larger cities in Transylvania and Dobrogea. This trend continued in the national elections, where the opposition dominated the cities and made steep inroads into rural areas theretofore dominated by President Iliescu and the PDSR, which have lost many voters in their traditional stronghold constituency outside Transylvania. The campaign of the opposition hammered away on the twin themes of the need to squelch corruption and to launch economic reform. The message resonated with the electorate, which swept Constantinescu and parties allied to him to power in free and fair elections. The coalition government formed in December 1996 took the historic step of inviting the UDMR and its Hungarian ethnic backers into government. Since its victory, the coalition has had three prime ministers. Despite these leadership changes, and constant internal frictions, the governing parties have managed to preserve their coalition.

Romania has made great progress in consolidating democratic institutions. The press is free and outspoken. Independent radio networks have proliferated, and a private television network now operates nationwide. The reorganized and security services have a much reduced role in civil society, but still maintain sole control over the secret police files of the former Communist regime.

Economy

Romania is a country of considerable potential: rich agricultural lands; diverse energy sources (coal, oil, natural gas, hydro, and nuclear); a substantial, if aging, industrial base encompassing almost the full range of manufacturing activities; an intelligent, well-trained work force; and opportunities for expanded development in tourism on the Black Sea and in the mountains.

In 1993, the economy reached the end of a decline in output that had begun well before the 1989 revolution. The Romanian Government had borrowed heavily from the West in the 1970s to build a massive state-owned industrial base. Following the 1979 oil price shock and a debt rescheduling in 1981, Ceausescu decreed that Romania would no longer be subject to foreign creditors. By the end of 1989, Romania had paid off a foreign debt of about $10.5 billion through an unprecedented effort that wreaked havoc on the economy. Vital imports were slashed, and food and fuel strictly rationed, while the government exported everything it could to earn hard currency. With investment slashed, Romania's technological infrastructure rapidly fell behind that of even its Balkan neighbors.

Since the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, successive governments have sought to build a Western-style market economy. The pace of restructuring has been slow, but by 1994 the legal basis for a market economy was largely in place. After the 1996 elections, the coalition government attempted to move rapidly and eliminate consumer subsidies, float prices, liberalize exchange rates, and put in place a tight monetary policy. The Parliament has enacted laws permitting foreign entities incorporated in Romania to purchase land and has identified a large number of government enterprises for rapid privatization or restructuring. Foreign capital investment in Romania has been decreasing and is significantly less than in some other Central European countries.

Privatization of industry was pursued with the transfer in 1992 of 30% of the shares of some 6,000 state-owned enterprises to five private ownership funds, in which each adult citizen received certificates of ownership. The remaining 70% ownership of the enterprises was transferred to a state ownership fund, with a mandate to sell off its shares at the rate of at least 10% per year. The privatization law also called for direct sale of some 30 specially selected enterprises and the sale of "assets" (i.e., commercially viable component units) of larger enterprises.

Subsidies to loss-making state-owned enterprises continue to be a serious drain on the state budget. Despite delays in privatizing certain large companies, the State Ownership Fund has made progress. Altogether, the private sector now accounts for an estimated 55% of GDP and employs approximately 52% of the work force.

The return of collectivized farmland to its cultivators, one of the first initiatives of the post-December 1989 revolution government, resulted in a short-term decrease in agricultural production. Some four million small parcels representing 80% of the arable surface were returned to original owners or their heirs. Many of the recipients were elderly or city dwellers, and the slow progress of granting formal land titles was an obstacle to leasing or selling land to active farmers.

An acute shortage of foreign exchange and a poorly developed financial sector have also been obstacles to rapid economic transition. Outside factors such as the collapse of trade with Soviet bloc trading partners, economic slowdown in the industrialized West, increases in imported energy costs, and large losses from UN sanctions against Iraq and the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, contributed to a precipitous drop in industrial output after 1989. The fact that the Danube River remains blocked from the Kosovo conflict denies Romania an important transportation route for its goods and has further hampered economic recovery.

In 1993, Romania embarked upon an adjustment program that showed some results. GDP, which had fallen for three consecutive years, stabilized in 1993 and registered 3.4% growth in 1994, 6.9% in 1995, and 4% in 1996. Since 1997, there has again been a decline in GDP of -6.6% in 1997, -7.3% in 1998, and (est.) -4.5% in 1999. Monthly retail price inflation, which averaged 12.1% in 1993 (the equivalent of 256% annually), declined to 28% in 1995. However, inflation picked up again in 1996 and 1997 due to excessive government spending in late 1996, and price and exchange rate liberalization in early 1997. Inflation in 1999 hovered around 50%. The government has committed itself to reduce the inflation rate by half in 2000.

Subsidies on most basic consumer goods were lifted in May 1993, but support for underproductive and loss-making state-owned industries continues to be a serious drain on the budget. The government nonetheless managed to cut the deficit, which totaled almost 4% of GDP in 1992, to only 1.7% in 1993. By 1995, however, the budget deficit had again risen to about 4% of GDP. The consolidated deficit, including internal arrearages, climbed to more than 10% of GDP in 1996.

Financial and technical assistance continue to flow in from the U.S., European Union, other industrial nations, and international financial institutions facilitating Romania's reintegration into the world economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (IBRD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) all have programs and resident representatives in Romania. Romania has also attracted foreign direct investment, which in 1997 rose to $2.5 billion.

Romania was the largest U.S. trading partner in Eastern Europe until Ceausescu's 1988 renunciation of Most Favored Nation (non-discriminatory) trading status resulted in high U.S. tariffs on Romanian products. Congress approved restoration of MFN status effective November 8, 1993, as part of a new bilateral trade agreement. Tariffs on most Romanian products dropped to zero in February 1994 with the inclusion of Romania in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Major Romanian exports to the U.S. include shoes and clothing, steel, and chemicals. Romania signed an Association Agreement with the EU in 1992 and a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1993, codifying Romania's access to European markets and creating the basic framework for further economic integration. At its Helsinki Summit in December 1999, the European Union invited Romania to formally begin accession negotiations.

Foreign Relations

Since December 1989, Romania has actively pursued a policy of strengthening relations with the West in general, more specifically with the U.S. and the European Union. Romania was a helpful partner to the allied forces during the Gulf war, particularly during its service as president of the UN Security Council. Romania has been active in peacekeeping operations in UNAVEM in Angola, IFOR/SFOR in Bosnia, and in Albania.

Romania diligently enforces United Nations' sanctions against the Former Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Despite divisions within the Parliament and among the people, Romania supported NATO in the Kosovo campaign and granted approval for NATO to overfly Romanian airspace. While Romania does not belong to any military alliance, it is a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC), and was the first country to enroll in the NATO Partnership for Peace program.

In 1996, Romania signed and ratified a basic bilateral treaty with Hungary that settled outstanding contentions and laid the foundation for closer, more cooperative relations. In June 1997, Romania signed a bilateral treaty with Ukraine that resolved territorial and minority issues, among others.

Romania has been actively involved in regional organizations, such as the Southeast Europe Cooperation Initiative (SECI) and the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe, and has been a positive force in supporting stability and cooperation in the area.

Romania maintains good diplomatic relations with Israel and was supportive of the Middle East peace negotiations initiated after the Gulf conflict in 1991. Romania also is a founding member of the Black Sea Consortium for Economic Development. It joined the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in 1972, and is a member of the World Trade Organization.

Romanian Missions in the United States

Embassy of Romania
1607 23rd Street NW
Washington, DC 20008
Tel. 202-332-4846

Romanian Mission to the UN
573 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Tel. 212-682-3273

Romanian National Tourist Office
573 Third Avenue
New York, NW 10016
Tel. 212-697-6971

Romanian Cultural Center
200 E. 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel. 212-687-0180

Defense

In accordance with the December 1991 Romanian constitution, the Romanian armed forces have the defensive mission of ensuring the territorial integrity of the country. The military enjoys popular support, largely because of its role in supporting the December 1989 revolution. The army is the largest service. Total armed forces strength is currently at 180,000, and is maintained through conscription. The Romanian Parliament has approved a plan to decrease the size of the armed forces from the current 180,000 to 112,000 by 2004. In 1993, the U.S. military began limited training of Romanian military and civilian officials through IMET and other exchange programs, emphasizing civilian democratic control over the military. The Romanian Government has expressed a strong desire to join NATO and has seriously focussed on the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) to prepare itself for membership.

U.S.-Romanian Relations

Cold during the early post-war period, U.S. bilateral relations with Romania began to improve in the early 1960s with the signing of an agreement providing for partial settlement of American property claims. Cultural, scientific, and educational exchanges were initiated, and in 1964 the legations of both nations were promoted to full embassies.

Responding to Ceausescu's cautious distancing of Romania from Soviet foreign policy, particularly continued diplomatic relations with Israel and denunciation of the 1968 Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia, President Nixon paid an official visit to Romania in August 1969. Despite political differences, high-level contacts continued between U.S. and Romanian leaders throughout the decade of the 1970s, culminating in the 1978 state visit to Washington by President and Mrs. Ceausescu.

In 1972, a consular convention to facilitate protection of citizens and their property in both countries was signed. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) facilities were granted, and Romania became eligible for U.S. Export-Import Bank credits.

A trade agreement signed in April 1975 accorded Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to Romania under section 402 of the Trade Reform Act of 1974 (the Jackson-Vanik amendment that links MFN to a country's performance on emigration.) This status was renewed yearly after Congressional review of a presidential determination that Romania was making progress toward freedom of emigration. Subsequently, the two countries signed a long-term agreement on economic, industrial, and technical cooperation.

In the mid-1980s, criticism of Romania's deteriorating human rights record, particularly allegations of mistreatment of religious and ethnic minorities, spurred attempts by Congress to withdraw MFN status. In 1988, to preempt Congressional action, Ceausescu renounced MFN treatment, calling Jackson-Vanik and other human rights requirements unacceptable interference in Romanian sovereignty.

After welcoming the revolution of December 1989 with a brief visit by Secretary of State Baker in February 1990, the U.S. Government expressed concern that opposition parties had faced discriminatory treatment in the May 1990 elections, when the National Salvation Front won a sweeping victory. The slow progress of subsequent political and economic reform increased that concern, and relations with Romania cooled sharply after the June 1990 intervention of the miners in University Square. Anxious to cultivate better relations with the U.S. and Europe, and disappointed at the poor results from its gradualist economic reform strategy, the Stolojan government undertook some economic reforms and conducted free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections in September 1992. Encouraged by the conduct of local elections in February 1992, Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger paid a visit in May 1992. Congress voted down a 1992 attempt to restore MFN status, but restored MFN in November 1993 in recognition of Romania's progress in instituting political and economic reform. In 1996, the U.S. Congress voted to extend permanent MFN graduation to Romania.

As Romania's policies have become unequivocally pro-Western, the United States has moved to deepen relations. President Clinton visited Bucharest in 1997 and announced a strategic partnership between the U.S. and Romania, through which the two countries could strengthen bilateral relations and deepen cooperation on shared goals in economic and political development, regional security, defense reform, and non-traditional threats (such as trans-border crime and non-proliferation).

The United States maintains Agency for International Development (USAID) and Peace Corps missions in Bucharest, and provides humanitarian, economic, and technical assistance to help Romania in its transition to democracy and a market economy.

Principal U.S. Officials

Ambassador--James C. Rosapepe
Deputy Chief of Mission--Susan Johnson
Counselor for Public Affairs--Stephen Strain
Consul General--Stephen R. Pattison
Political/Economic Affairs Counselor--Carolyn Johnson
Defense Attache--Colonel Robert T. Veale
Administrative Counselor--Ronna S. Pazdral
USAID Representative--Denny Robertson
Peace Corps Director--Arthur Flanagan
Commercial Attache--Jeremy Keller
Principal Officer, U.S. Embassy Branch Office,
Cluj-Napoca--Carl R. Siebentritt

The U.S. embassy in Romania is located at Strada Tudor Arghezi 7-9, Bucharest (tel. 40-1 210-4042, fax 40-1 210-0395, consular fax 211-3360).

A U.S. embassy Branch Office was opened in Cluj-Napoca in January 1994 (tel. 40-64 19-38-15, fax 40-64-19-38-68).


Source:
U.S. Department of State
Bureau of European Affairs