Romania on the
road to EU membership
Cem Oguz
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
31 October
2006
In May 1987, during Mikhail Gorbachev's official visit to Romania,
Nicolae Ceausescu took the Soviet delegation to a big food store to show the
reformist Soviet leader the prosperity that was flourishing in his country.
"There was an excellent assortment of different foodstuffs, at least 40 kinds of
sausage and meats alone, as well as various cheeses and so forth," wrote
Gorbachev in his memoirs with astonishment. However, he later found out that no
sooner they had left most of the goods were removed from the shelves and taken
away. It turned out, says Gorbachev, this was "a movable Potemkin village," as
they called such showcases in the Soviet Union.
At present, the whole of
Romania seems to be like these once-movable Potemkin villages. In ex-communist
countries, the number of Western-type supermarkets and vigor in the marketplaces
are for me the most valuable indicators of national prosperity as well as
development. My friends in Romania had been inviting my wife and me, for a long
time, to visit them. This bayram holiday we managed to do it. It was very
surprising to discover that the number of such supermarkets had doubled since my
last visit in February. I was told that two new international hypermarket
chains, too, had just recently announced their entrance into the Romanian
market. Carrefour's growth in sales over the first six months of this year by
approximately 35 percent clearly displays why the Romanian market is becoming
attractive and how the purchasing power of the Romanian people is
increasing.
There is indeed a striking boom in the Romanian economy.
According to National Trade Register Office statistics, the previous year
brought a record in the number of newly established companies in Romania, with
more than 157,000 companies being registered. The problem, however, lurks in the
capacity of the Romanian government to fix the present inequalities among people
as well as the regions. The value of most residential projects developed so far
in Bucharest, for instance, addresses the high-income bracket, with no project
intended for the middle class as yet. According to Gorbachev, once "The Romanian
economy was wholly subordinate to its ruler's [Ceausescu] great power ambitions
and was coming to look more and more like a horse being mercilessly whipped and
driven by a cruel rider." The question now is whether ordinary Romanians will be
able to escape the faith in being such a horse mercilessly whipped and driven by
wild capitalism.
It is undeniably the approaching European Union
membership that is helping foreign investment rocket as well as the country's
economic boom. Yet, discussions about the EU are more acute than ever before. I
read a very interesting op-ed by Mircea Vasilescu in Romanian daily Nine
O'clock, entitled "What we know that we don't know about the EU." It reminded me
of Turkey's case. Vasilescu maintained that "the debates, pros and cons, the
often technical and bureaucratic language only reach those who are already
familiar with them -- the 'elite,' the most informed and dynamic part of the
public." He then concluded, "We are virtually discussing 'among
ourselves'."
The elite is indeed virtually discussing among themselves,
while ordinary Romanians whom I spoke with expect Romania's EU membership will
eventually help them diminish widespread corruption and boost their standards of
living. As in Turkey, the reputation of political actors is not at all
promising. According to a survey conducted by Insomar, Parliament and political
parties rank last in public confidence among Romanian institutions (19 and 18
percent respectively). Romanians continue to have the highest confidence in the
church (85 percent). Among political figures, the only exception is the
president: 62 percent of respondents expressed feeling either very or
sufficiently happy with the performance of President Traian Basescu. In
contrast, 65 percent said they are unhappy with Prime Minister Calin Popescu
Tariceanu. The confrontation between these two political figures, the last sign
of which was about who is authorized to appoint the EU commissioner, bears the
potential of political instability in the days to come. Accordingly, the quest
for autonomy by Romanians of Hungarian descent living in the west of Romania, a
vivid discussion among the Romanian public nowadays, is not auspicious
either.
During the period we stayed in Romania, something interesting
happened that made me laugh for hours. Britain and Ireland announced plans to
restrict immigration from Romania as well as Bulgaria when both become EU
members. This decision, or in other words "double standard" as my beloved
Romanian friends chose to label it, indeed sparked discontent among Romanians.
Prime Minister Tariceanu called it "a bad investment in the medium and long
term, which cultivates fear and the reserve of the population towards the
European Union and encourages distrust in the European values."
My
Romanian friends, upset by my evident amusement, asked me what I found so funny.
I simply recommended they come to Turkey to understand better what a double
standard means. For those who might be inclined to criticize my views in that
regard, I will pose a single question: Can you imagine in Turkey a head of the
European Commission Delegation whose end of mandate is reported in the media in
very small news stories? Jonathan Scheele's farewell to Romania was so. It
didn't get any attention. He simply was reported to have said that the time he
spent in Romania was "an extraordinary experience." Believe it or not, that's
all! Please compare, in turn, Mr. Hansjoerg Kretschmer's long
farewell...
I always enjoy visiting Romania. It is the only country among
ex-Ottoman subjects where history didn't manage to take bilateral relations
hostage. Romanians are indeed pragmatic. In 1462, when the Ottoman troops were
withdrawing for defensive reasons in the war against Vlad the Impaler's forces,
they found, near Targoviste, a vast forest of stakes on which all the corpses of
Turks taken hostage in the previous confrontations were impaled. Present-day
Romanians, in turn, are expecting the Turks enthusiastically and without any
prejudices.
If only there was not also Romania's approach to the Black
Sea discussions and their alienating affect on Turkey...
2006 The New Anatolian
An aristocratic title is not enough to ensure a noble behaviour. A person's greatness comes from acknowledging the mistakes and agreeing to correct them.
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." (Jimi Hendrix)
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 2% din impozitul pe 2005 - detalii la http://www.doilasuta.ro ***
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