The 3166 MA has answered: >The change was permitted because the government of Romania urgently >requested it. The Romanian Government wanted to see their country identified >not by ROM but ROU on the new passports they are issuing and which are in >line with certain EU and ICAO regulations. > >The change of a three-letter code element is not so critical from the point >of view of the ISO 3166/MA because there are enough code elements available. >The change of the two-letter code element (used in the application you quote >in your e-mail) would probably have been out of the question, first because >there are no other good combinations left starting with "R" and second >because the two-letter code is being used much more extensively than the >three letter code, hence the change would have created more work for users >of the system than for the relatively modest number of users of the alpha-3 >code.
-- Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com
