Book Description

Inhaltsangabe:Abstract: When talking about integration, one must think first of all about the problems such an integration means. Many Romanians nowadays look at the integration into the European and Euro-Atlantic structures only as a means of better living standards. But very few Romanians might be willing to pay the price for the integration. Nobody in Romania seems to know exactly the direction we are heading to. But there must certainly be changes of the people s mentality, if we want to achieve something at all. Yet, this problem does not concern Romanians alone. The West generally regards Romania as a source of crime and, at least for the moment, does not even want to talk to Romania about our integration into the European Union, although the negotiations have been started with all potential candidates at the same time. Recently, when about 500 gypsies created problems in Austria, the country asked Hungary and the Czech Republic to introduce the visa-system for Romanian citizens. They obviously wanted the Romanians to be even more humiliated than they already were, lining up also at Hungary s and the Czech Republic s embassies in order to be able to travel to those countries. Mister Andrei Plesu, the Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, said: If 500 gypsies are able to destabilise Austria, they are either first-hand merchandise or Austria is a little bit frail . On the other hand, one cannot deny that Romanian citizens keep causing trouble to western European countries. But the problem is that dubious people manage somehow to get visas, while honest people are denied the basic right of travelling to foreign countries only because a few of their fellow citizens are being considered troublemakers. If no visas were required, only a small, negligible margin of the Romanian citizens travelling abroad would be denied the permission to travel to western European countries again. Then, there is the problem of culture. If you ask a Romanian citizen about the capital of a western European state, it is less possible that he will not know it than if you asked a western European about Romania s capital. For instance, many Frenchmen are convinced that Budapest is Romania s capital. A French band performing in Bucharest was warmly welcome and acclaimed until its members shouted: I love you, Budapest! . Of course, the fact that western Europeans do not know eastern European capitals does not mean that people in western Europe are not civilised. Romania [...]