Romanian Contemporary Society

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Romanian Contemporary Society

• European Commission, Luxembourg, 26 April 2006

Romanian Information Centre in Brussels
April 2006
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Society

• History
• Language and writing system
• Demographics Ethnicity
• Key moments

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Facts

• Population 22.2 million
• Capital Bucharest
• Area 238,391 sq km (92,043 sq miles)
• Major language Romanian
• Major religion Christianity
• Life expectancy 67 years (men), 74 years (women)
  
• Monetary unit RON
• Main exports Textiles and footwear, metal
  products, machinery, minerals
• GNI per capita US 2,920

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History

• Romanian territory inhabited by the Dacians
• Defeated by the Roman Empire in 106
• Part of Dacia (Oltenia, Banat and Transylvania)
  became a Roman province
• For the next 165 years, considerable Roman
  colonization in the area
• Vulgar Latin, language of the administration and
  commerce

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History

• The Roman administration and legions withdrew
  from Dacia between 271-275
• The Romanians are the descendants of these people
  that remained in Dacia and assimilated the
  non-Romanized Dacians

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Language

• Geographical isolation gt uniform conservative
  language
• Slavonic, Greek, Turkish, and Hungarian influence
• Meanwhile the other Romance languages adopted
  words and features of Germanic

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Language

• Romanian Romance language of the the Italic
  branch of the Indo-European language family
• Common with French, Italian and Spanish
• Closest to Romanian are the other Eastern Romance
  languages, spoken south of Danube, sometimes
  classified as dialects of Romanian

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Language

• Moldovan language Romanian

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Influences

• Slavic influence - Church Slavonic was the main
  liturgical language until the 18th century
• The other surrounding languages (all Slavic, with
  the exception of Hungarian) also influenced
  Romanian

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Influences

• Up to 20 of the vocabulary is of Slavic origin
• Many Slavic words are archaisms and it is
  estimated that only 10 of the words in modern
  Romanian are Slavic

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Influences

• Notable influences
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Turkish
• German
• French and Italian

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Influences

• About 38 of the number of words in Romanian are
  of French or Italian origin
• Plus the words inherited from Latin, it makes
  about 75-85 of the Romanian words that can be
  traced to Latin

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Geographic distribution

• Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and
  Montenegro, Bulgaria
• Canada, United States, Germany, Israel, Australia
  and New Zealand, mainly due to immigration after
  World War II

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Official status

• Vojvodina
• Official or administrative language in various
  communities and organisations
• Republic of Moldova
• Serbia and Ukraine

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Religions

• Christian Orthodox - 86.7
• Roman Catholic - 4.7
• Protestant - 3.7
• Pentecostal - 1.5
• Greek Catholic - Uniate - 0.9
• Atheist - 0 (9,271 people)
• No religion - 0.1
• Other religions - 2.3
• Refused to declare - 0.1

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Religion

• Catholics are present in Transylvania, Bucharest,
  and parts of Moldavia

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Demographics

• About 89.5 of the people of Romania are ethnic
  Romanians

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Ethnicity

• Romanian 89.5
• Hungarian 6.6
• Roma 2.5
• Ukrainian 0.3
• German 0.3
• Russian 0.2
• Turkish and Tatar 0.2
• Other 0.4

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Minorities

• Hungarians and Rromas - the biggest minorities
• Germans Slovaks, Serbs, Croats and Banat
  Bulgarians
• Ukrainians
• Greeks
• Turks and Tatars, Armenians, Great Russians
  (Lippovans)

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The Hungarian minority

• The largest minority in Romania
• One of the largest minorities in Europe
• Situated in the center and NW
• Makes up 20 of the population of Transylvania
  and 6.6 of the total population

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Harghita 84.61 SatuMare 35.22 Covasna
73.81 Bihor 25.92 Mures 39.26 Salaj 23.07
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Hungarians Germans

• Minority populations are greatest in Transylvania
  and the Banat
• Ethnic Romanians - majority in Transylvania
• Ethnic Hungarians and Germans - dominant urban
  population until relatively recently, and still a
  majority in Harghita and Covasna

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The Jewish minority

• Destruction of the Jewish communities of
  Bessarabia and Bukovina
• Most Jews from Romania survived the Holocaust
• Mass emigration (to Israel and US) gt less than
  6,000

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Minorities

• Before World War II, minorities gt 28 of the
  total population
• During the war the percentage halved
• Postwar flight or deportation of ethnic Germans
• Massive immigration during the comunist period

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Minority rights

• Gradual improvement after 1990
• Massive improvement beginning with 1996
• The Treaty..
• Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania in
  the coalition government

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Minority rights

• Period of major achievements
• Legislative acts and amendments
• Bodies dealing with minority issues
• Strategy for the Improvement of the Situation of
  the Roma Population
• Funds available

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Civil and political rights

• One of the best legal frameworks in the region
• Equal rights and opportunities in accordance with
  international conventions
• Automatic representation in Parliament
• Hungarian minority party in govt coalition since
  1996
• Anti-discrimination laws (incl. criminal law)
• Use of mother tongue
• Education all levels (university HU DE)
• Local administration (if above 20 of
  inhabitants)
• Legal proceedings
• Public TV Radio programs

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Education system

• Education is free and compulsory through the
  eighth grade
• 1990 - first private schools established

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Education system

• pre-school education
• primary school
• secondary school
• high school
• primary and secondary school are compulsory
• vocational and apprenticeship schools

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Education system

• Higher education (4-6 years) traditionally in 7
  centres
• After 1990 higher education establishments have
  opened in another 18 cities
• Primary, secondary and high school are also
  conducted in the mother tongues of ethnic
  minorities
• Special schools for disabled children

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The Constitution

• Latest revision in 2003
• National minorities rights
• Private property
• The mandate of the President of Romania
• Military conscription
• Parliamentary immunity
• EU citizens rights
• parliamentary vote for entry into the EU and NATO

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Media

• One of the most dynamic media markets in SEE
• 1 state-owned and 2 private commercial stations
  have the lion's share
• Large number of smaller, private TV stations,
  some of them part of local networks
• More than 100 radio stations
• Most households in major cities have cable TV
• 25 of the population has Internet access
• Romania's newspaper market thrived after the 1989
  

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Key moments

• 2001 - Law of property restitution
• 2001 - Aticle criminalising homosexuality removed
  from the Penal Code
• 2003 - President Iliescu visits Russia
• 2004 - Romania admitted to Nato

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Key moments

• 2004 - President Iliescu admits Romanian
  complicity in Nazi-driven Holocaust of World War
  II
• 2005 - Romania signs EU accession treaty, putting
  it on course to join in 2007
• 2005 - Parliament ratifies EU accession treaty
• 2005 - US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
  visits, signs agreement which will allow USA to
  use military bases in Romania

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We started from

• No liberty of speech
• Single-party system
• State controlled economy
• Rationing of food
• Persistent shortages of gasoline, electricity,
  and heat
• Crashing economic program to pay off the foreign
  debt
• Austere imports program

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We arrived at

• Political and social dynamism
• Multiple-party democracy
• Stable executive power
• Minority rights beyond Council of Europe
  standards
• Independent judiciary system
• Improvement of the protection of property rights
• A modern system for child protection rights
• Growing strength and activism of Romanian civil
  society

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We arrived at

• Stability factor in South Eastern Europe due to
  the NATO membership, stable political, social and
  legislative frameworks, established foreign
  policy as supporter of strong transatlantic ties
• Committed European player
• US strategic partner and ally

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We arrived at

• Economic dynamism
• Steady GDP growth
• Increasing trade
• Reduced inflation
• Decreasing budget deficit
• FDI 4.2 billion in 2005, over 6 billion
  foreseen in 2006