A Cabinet meeting at the Victory Palace, the
seat of the working government.
Photo: DAPP
Multi-Party Democracy
Politics in Romania today are the same as in any parliamentary
multi-party democracy. Which is why it might be so unfamiliar to
Americans!
Coalitions come and go in Romania, and the recent alliance between
the Liberals (PNL) and the Democrats (PD) failed miserably as
disagreements over cabinet posts and general policy differences
eventually put Prime Minister and President against each other in the
public area.
This gave the Opposition Social Democrats the opportunity to hold a
referendum on impeaching President Traian Basescu, which also failed,
with 74% of Romanians choosing to keep their leader.
Opinion polls are run by responsible
polling firms, and the numbers of the popularity of the government and
it's leaders splashed on the evening news.
Briefing the Masses
Borrowing the U.S. style of press room look, the
Prime Minister addresses the gaggle.
Photo: Office of the Prime
Minister
To announce that the last vestiges of the old Communist era
politicians is gone would be premature yet, for in the countryside still
survives the old system and networks. The Social Democrats (PSD)
party inherited much of the old system, and is still a firm favourite of
farm workers and traditionalists alike.
The reforms foisted on Romania by the lengthy and comprehensive EU
accession process caused a stunning gap between new legislation and
attitudes and beliefs in the Romanian society.
Most Romanians are
hardly aware that homosexuality is fully legal in Romania now due to
alignment of Romanian law with EU mandates. Nor do most Romanians
believe that the rich industrialist on murder charges will be treated
the same as the average guy who forgot to pay his parking tickets.
The Coalition government gave ministerial status to the
anti-corruption drive, and on many levels this seems to have done the
trick. By appointing a justice minister with little to hide and
with the support of some imported EU staff, the Ministry of Justice and
the Anti-Corruption Department have achieved some legislative inroads at
least.
But, that big arrest has yet to happen, and the untouchables remain
untouched in the upper echelons of business and politics in Romania.
With a judicial system in a near panic to reorganise to align with the
mountains of new legislation, and moreover, expectations of the populace
and EU monitoring staff, the legal system cannot be described as fully
functional -- yet.
The Legal System
Legal reforms have been going in stops and starts since the 1989
revolution. Being gay was taken off the criminal code, and
then put back on and then taken off again. Only in August of 2006
were adultery and vagrancy removed from the criminal code, along with
libel and slander laws.
Several journalists actually had to take their cases to the European
Court of Human Rights before the Romanian parliament finally got their
acts together to move the slander and libel laws back into the civil
side of the law code.
In the first visit by a sitting U.S. president since Richard
Nixon's historic visit in 1969, the senior Bush praised the
Romanian people's courage shown during the 1989 "Revolution":
"And here, in December of 1989, you broke the
silence of your captivity," remarked President Bush. "From that
balcony, the dictator heard your voices and faltered -- and fled.
Two generations of bitter tyranny ended, and all the world witnessed
the courage of Romania, the courage that set you free."
President George W. Bush waves to thousands of
Romanians in Revolution Square in Bucharest, Romania, Nov. 23. The
square is the site of the 1989 revolt that toppled communist rule
and where the Romanian people denounced the dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu.
Photo: White House photo by Paul
Morse
The Romanian National Anthem
This is a somewhat more flowery interpretation
than some, but in our opinion, truer to the original in
sentiment. These are the verses which are played every
morning (in a 10 minute long version) on Romania's state-run
broadcaster, TVR (TV Romania).
Awaken
thee, Romanian, shake off thy deadly slumber
The scourge of inauspicious barbarian tyrannies
And now or never to a bright horizon clamber
That shall to shame put all your enemies.
It's now or never to the world we readily proclaim
In our veins throbs Roman blood
And in our hearts for ever we glorify a name
Resounding of battle, the name of gallant Trajan.
Do look, imperial shadows, Michael, Stephen, Corvinus
At the Romanian nation, your mighty progeny
With arms like steel and hearts of fire impetuous
It's either free or dead, that's what they all decree.
Priests, raise the cross, this Christian army's liberating
The word is freedom, no less sacred is the end
We'd rather die in battle, in elevated glory
Than live again enslaved on our ancestral land.
“Romania has a vital role to play in the Balkans, Black Sea region”,
said U.S. President George W. Bush after the meeting with President
Traian Băsescu in late 2006. That meeting went into overtime,
giving the impression that President Bush's interest in his Romanian
counterpart was at the least, more than usual.
Băsescu underscored that Romania would
continue to be an U.S. ally in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with Bush
testifying that “I spent a lot of time to think about the Black Sea
policy and the Balkans and Romania’s role is vital in the region. Our
countries are friends, I am friend with President Băsescu. Romania and
the US are allies, we are allies."
Balkan Buddies
The Presidents of Romania and the United States
enjoy a jocular meeting. According to source in the White
House, there is a persistant opinion in the west wing that
Băsescu looks like a young George Washington.
ROMANIAN REPORTER TO BUSH: "Is there any role for the Romanian -- for
Romania in the American foreign policy strategy, besides its
participation within the American-led coalitions in Iraq and
Afghanistan?"
PRESIDENT BUSH: "Absolutely. I spent a lot of time listening to my
friend's advice on the Black Sea region. We're going to spend time
over lunch talking about specific issues related to the Balkans.
"And
Romania's role in this area and in her neighbourhood is a vital
role, one that I listen very carefully to his advice on, because
this area of the world is one where there's emerging democracies,
and it's an area of the world that is where there has been
historical conflict, and it's an area of the world where we've got
to pay attention to it.
"And so the Romanian role is a vital role.
And so, as I say, we're going to spend time strategizing about the
role over lunch. "
President Băsescu pressed for visas for Romanian citizens, saying
that “Romania doesn’t look at the US as an emigration area. As future
member of the EU, Romania will have a lot of places to work. The reason
for which I raised this subject are the students that are more and more
present in the American universities, as well as the businesspeople”.
But President Bush wasn't particularly moved, handing off the
matter to State to deal with. About 12 of the former communist
bloc nations still have visa restrictions, although about 30 western
European countries do not.
Despite the very busy agenda during this period, President Bush
spent almost three hours in the company of his Romanian counterpart.
Something that ... is not exactly the diplomatic and protocol custom
at the White House. On the contrary, it only occurs very rarely, and
only when the American President wishes to express a special regard
for the guest he is seeing.
Therefore, the Head of the American Administration did not limit
to the official talks with President Basescu in
the Oval Office, he also offered a luncheon in the honour of his
Romanian guest, during which he continued in a more candid atmosphere
the working dialogue that had been started earlier.
The themes of the talks could be but very diverse, including
matters related to the bilateral agenda, cooperation within NATO and
the fight against terrorism. And the active support granted by Romania
to the United States as well as the presence of Romanian troops
shoulder to shoulder with the US ones in the various theatres of
operation in hotspots of the planet have been always acknowledged,
appreciated and commended in Washington.
Moreover, Washington has always admitted that Romania, from its
strategic position in the region and its geographical affiliation can
play a key role in building and strengthening security at the Black
Sea and the greater neighbourhood up to the Caspian Sea where it is a
known fact that American interests in the energy potential of the area
are very important.
Such a dense ‘working day’ the Romanian President had ... could
not have lacked a meeting with the Secretary of Defence Donald
Rumsfeld. The agenda of the talks was naturally dominated by the
continuation of the bilateral cooperation in the fight against
terrorism, pursuit of American military assistance for Romania and the
placement of US military facilities in Romania under the bilateral
agreement signed at the end of last year.
by Gabriela Bogdan
published in issue 3732 of Nine-O'Clock News page 7
at 2006-07-27
The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO in 1999, and
Romania followed in 2004 with Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Slovakia and Slovenia, taking the number of NATO countries up to its
present total of 26.
For Romania, the 2008 NATO summit, held for the first time in
Romania's capital Bucharest (the traffic was nightmarish), was most
significant for discussions with Romania about troop committments for
both Kosovo and Afghanistan.
The American military holds coordinated week-long exercises in
Romania with both Romania and Bulgaria, with the July 2008
Romanian-American Joint Task Force exercise seeing 280 Romanian and 900
American troops training together across urban tactical exercise,
tactical theatre first aid, and shooting practice.
The U.S. 1st Armoured Division
conducts live fire exercises, trains for urban assault tactics, plans
logistics for cross-border movements, all to enhance their joint
expeditionary force coordination. Rotational training tours
have seen more and more U.S. troops training on Romanian soil instead of
in Western European countries. Almost all of the American
troops on the ground in Romania are there on unaccompanied tours of six
months or less.
Romanians in Afghanistan
At Camp Sentinal in a southern province,
still looking for the beach.
The Americans and Romanians routinely practice joint formations and
low altitude interdiction type operations, greatly enhancing familiarity
between the forces for operational systems and some advanced tactics.
Support for the American military
efforts in the Middle East by the provision of Romanian military
personnel has wrought schisms in the leading Coalition government, with
the party room a hotbed of scathing dissent.
However, the
supply of equipment, including fighter aircraft from the Americans at
rather reasonable rates further solidifies Romania's NATO profile and
functional capacity, so the further integration of the Romanian military with U.S.
operations abroad seems a foregone conclusion.
The 2003 use of Romanian soil as a marshalling and staging zone for
the 2003 invasion of Iraq highlighted the unique functional nodality and
tactical strength of Romania's position as the eastern-most NATO nation.
Americans have shown their resolve in helping their Balkan partner
in the "Coalition of the Willing" by backing an alternate gas pipeline through Romania to
challenge Moscow's stranglehold on this energy sector.
The 2005
joint agreement on U.S. Forces in Romania was concluded after visits by the
Secretaries U.S. of Defense (to Braşov) and State (in Bucharest). The
ten year basic forces agreement allows the Americans to use facilities in
Romania as "forward operating sites", to base materiel, logistics and refuelling operations, as well
as training of U.S. and NATO troops, and as a tactically convenient
location for sorties.
Firing at Făgăraş
Deep in western County Braşov just south of Făgăraş, the U.S. Army
helps to enhance the readiness of Romanian armed forces to support NATO
operations in the region and abroad.
Annual live fire exercises and the Cincu Firing Range each autumn
provide an opportunity for local press to champion Romania's role as a
NATO partner.
The Joint Task Force – East (JTF-E), overseen by the Southern
European Task Force - Airborne (SETAF) in Vicenza Italy, has it's own
commanding one-star general and between 900 and 1800 troops training in
Romania.
Most personnel are headquartered at the Mihăil Kogălniceanu air
base, where there area which formerly housed the Romanian mechanised
brigade is now undergoing $50million in improvements.
The resource management and logistics complex at "MK" as the
Americans say, is also home to supply units of the Romanian military and
other personnel from both governments. The then-Secretary of
Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, had checked out the area in a 2004 visit
before the joint forces agreement was signed.
The constructionmen of the U.S. Navy Seabee forces add to the pool
of local civilian contractors to substantially enhance the facilities at
MK, in a building boom set to continue through 2008, when the "MK Air
Base" will be home to it's own squadron.
The JTF-E facilities are ideal for training U.S. troops with
live-fire exercises to familiarise troops with both small-arms and
crew-served weapons techniques, as well as situational training across a
variety of scenarios.
MK is seeing rotations of full squadrons to Romania from Germany,
Italy and the U.S., with the ability to host at full brigades of three
to four thousand troops in facilities across Dobrogea (both in
County Constanţa
and County Tulcea)
by mid-2008. NATO troops and staff from other European
countries will help coordinate joint operations, and further training in
other eastern European locales such as minor deployments to other Black
Sea states.
Part of the brigades and companies based in Romania use the Babadag
Training Area, bizarrely enough, just south of the other Mihăil Kogalniceanu
community in the Dobrogea
Region, this one in
County
Tulcea, not far from the main runway and airport
at Cataloi.
The Babadag firing range in the Dobrogea region is used for joint
live fire exercises between American F-11s based in Germany, and the MIG
Lancers, based at the 86th airbase
in Piteşti. The Romanian MIGs feature updated avionics (not quite as advanced as the U.S. forces
however) and meet NATO standards.
The Babadag Training Area makes for a functionally convenient base of
operations with the main trans-Dobrogean rail line (running north and
south from Tulcea to the Bulgarian border) providing an easy transfer
point for material.
Troops in Romania have been ordered to remain on low profile during
their usual six-month tours in Romania, most of which time is taken up
in training anyways.
Nevertheless, where you have Americans, you will find the requisite
Pizza Huts (Constanţa now has two, complete
with wi-fi access), and
the clever corporate planners at Starbucks have slated their new
location in Constanţa open in the near future as well.
The Defence Attaché in the Bucharest embassy provides advice to the
English ambassador and interfaces between the MoD in London and staff at
the Romanian Defence Ministry in Bucharest.
Each year there are a
large number of bilateral activities including English Language
Training, military specific training and ‘train-the-trainer’ activities,
expert visits, seminars, joint UK/Romanian exercises, and exchanges.
In mid-2006, two ex-Royal Navy Type-22 Frigates were sold to
Romania, rebadged, rather perversely, the "Queen Mary" and the "King
Ferdinand" (Maria and Ferdinand were both Romanian monarchs before
WWII).
Close relationships have ensued with both Romanian Air Force, Army
and Navy staff training in England at the Royal College of Defence
Studies and training at RAF Halton.
London's number two intelligence chief held meetings in Bucharest in
May 2005, and the Romanian counterpart for military intelligence has
previously visited London, most recently with the Romanian visit to UK's
Directorate of Defence Security in November 2005.
The ever-able seamen of the frigate
King Ferdinand pose for a crew photo at Constanţa
Romania-Savvy
Ambassador from July 2004 to February 2005, Dr. Crouch is now on
the NSC at the White House. Here, opening the Romanian Special
Olympics in Bucharest.
Secretary Rice and former Romanian
Foreign Minister Razvan Ungureanu (Adrian Cioroianu is currently in
the post) shake hands after signing an
agreement on access to military facilities in Romania at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest.
The Americans got things very much in shape in Romania, as far as
solidifying strategic security issues go, during the tenure of Dr. Jack
Dyer ("J. D.") Crouch II as Ambassador to Romania (his Ph.D. in
International Relations is from USC).
As Ambassador, Crouch was a strong critic of corruption and the slow
pace of reforms in Romania. His relationship with the palaces did
yield some good agreements for further incorporating Romanian forces
with the Iraq conflict.
In early 2005, the now former ambassador was appointed Deputy
National Security Advisor. His knowledge of Romania gained in his
mission to increase cooperation between the United States and Romania in
the global war on terror, and to foster Romania's incorporation into
Western security institution can only increase Romania's profile in the
situation rooms inside the Beltway.
Prior to becoming Ambassador to Romania, Dr. Crouch served as
Assistant Secretary of Defence for International Security Policy from
August 2001 through October 2003.
He was the principal advisor to the
Secretary of Defence on the formulation and coordination of policy for
NATO, Europe, Russia, the Central Asian Republics, the Caucasus and the
Balkans, nuclear forces, missile defence, technology security policy,
counter-proliferation, and arms control.
Posted to the White House as Assistant to the President, Dr. Crouch is indeed qualified to
offer advice on Romania and the Balkans in a variety of policy and
defence matters.
Diplomacy Afoot
The more public discussions of the primary relationship between
Romania and the United States centring on military bases came with the
visit of the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice in late 2005.
Her comments on the subject were given at a press conference at
Cotroceni:
"With Romania we have a particularly close relationship, a
military relationship that is playing out in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
We have very good relations also with Bulgaria, a NATO ally. But the
President and President Bush talked about the possibility of doing
this.
"Both geographically it makes sense for the United States and in
terms of what we have been doing with Romania in terms of military
training. I know that Romania takes particularly good advantage of our
International Military Training Program and sends a lot of officers to
the United States.
"But I said to the President that I thought that Romania has made
a commitment to the transformation of its military, to the
strengthening of its military, to technological capabilities to
getting real capacity in the Romanian military to be able to do the
kinds of military activities that Romania is engaged in in Afghanistan
and in Iraq and in the Balkans.
"And that is perhaps a recognition as well that this is a very
close relationship where our military capabilities can help around the
world, not just in the region but around the world, because of the
commitment that Romania has made.
"We will be at NATO tomorrow and in the future, actually on
Thursday and in the future, talking about the need of NATO to
transform its forces, to make the commitment of resources that is
needed to put real military capability in the hands of the alliance to
be able to meet the challenges that we face. And I think increasingly
Romania is demonstrating that it is one of the most active countries
in doing precisely that. "
When President Traian Băsescu visited London
in early 2005, the joint statement between Romania and Great Britain
issued read:
"Prime Minister Blair and President Basescu reaffirmed the
importance of the strategic partnership UK - Romania. They noted that in
2005 Romania and the UK celebrate 125 years of diplomatic relations and
agreed that there were good opportunities for the two countries to work
more closely together.”
The bulk of UK attention and aid outside of the military arena go to
bolstering the Romanian judiciary, encouraging free competition,
fighting corruption and promoting regional development and local
affairs.
Over a dozen of the staff from the embassy in Sector 1
are focussed on assisting Romanian achieve it's 2007 EU accession
targets. Relations with the UK were strained ever so lightly when the
football club Middlesborough dared to challenge national champions FC
Steaua Bucharest in the 2006 UEFA Cup semifinal. They lost,
of course, the Romanian team winning 1-0.
In 2006, the Duke of Edinburgh rather famously quipped about the estimated 47,000
Romanian orphans that " there's so many over there you feel they breed
them just to put in orphanages."
The recipient of the Duke of Edinburgh's award to whom the Prince
Royal was talking, who had just been working in Romania, couldn't have
been more surprised. Tony Allen, of the Romanian Orphans Appeal,
labelled the duke's comment "disgusting".
The Prince Charles
Effect
A deep and abiding passion for architecture and wilderness keep
Romania on the Prince Royal's holiday locations list
Prince Charles on the other hand has been rather more enamoured with
Romania, or at least the fine old examples of Saxon architecture present
in Sigişoara amongst other locations.
HRH Prince Charles visited Bucharest and Sibiu in November
1998, but long before he'd issued some scathing commentary on the
insanity of Ceausescu's destruction of villages and culture in the
countryside.
From his
speech in London in early 1989 the Prince was deeply critical of the
systematization of Romania's countryside, replacing villages with vile
concrete blocks and ruining the identity of towns.
"To achieve this plan, some 8,000 villages could be demolished,
together with churches, ancestral graveyards and every connection with
the rural people's past. "
Curiously, the Prince had a personal investment with the dictator's
dumb and brutal plans, as he revealed that, "the tomb of my great great,
great grandmother - Claudina, Countess Rhedey, who was my great
grandmother, Queen Mary's, grandmother, and Hungarian - is in the
village of Singiorge de Padure, and threatened with demolition."
The Mihai Eminescu Trust
More recently, the London-based Mihai Eminescu Trust, with the
Prince as patron (although not a large contributor), has assisted
efforts by Clarence House to investigate a few property options in
Transilvania, perhaps for a hunting or organic farming operation.
The trust has been responsible for substantial restoration work in
Transylvania principally in the vicinity of Sighisoara, a UNESCO
designated Heritage City, and for avoiding the creation of a
Dracula-themed fun park there.
The Prince has visited almost annually over the last 5 years, always
interested in the preservation of Saxon architecture and the culture of
the region. In 2006 he spent two nights in Viscri and saw
much of the Trust’s restoration work, noting the extraordinary change in
the village since his last visit four years previously.
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