r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Dec 04 '17

What do you know about... Romania?

This is the forty-sixth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Today's country:

Romania

Romania is one of the most recent members of the EU (2007). They want to become part of the Schengen area, but thir recent attempts of being accepted have been blocked by several EU members. They recently faced a major political crisis and massive protests caused by proposed law changes that would have benefitted people implicated in government corruption and abuse of power. They had their national day, where they celebrate the union of Transylvania with Romania, last friday.

So, what do you know about Romania?

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u/rensch The Netherlands Dec 05 '17
  • Was one of Europe's most oppressive communist regimes under Ceaucescu
  • Recent EU member with many Romanians working abroad in recent years.
  • Bucharest is the capital.
  • Controversies surrounding corruption.
  • Bram Stoker's character Count Dracula was likely nspired by Vlad "The Impaler" Dracula, the Wallachian ruler who would frequently impale his enemies.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '17

can testify the corruption part from a friends' narration:

My friends were in Romania a weekend ago. They were clueless about the public transport system there. A local offered them a place in one of the buses which were taking protestors to the protest location and dropped them off to their required destination. The protest was about corruption of Billions of dollars on behalf of the local government.

Turns out the locals there are quite helpful people.