Republic of Romania (Romania- RO)

System of government: Republic consisting of 42 counties with Bucharest as the capital

Main cities: Bucuresti, Constanta, Iasi, Cluj – Napoca, Ploiesti, Pitesti, Craiova, Timisoara, Sibiu, Brasov

Population: 21,537,563 (1^st of July 2007)

Population density:90.9/km² as a national average, close to 9000/km² in Bucharest, 100-125/km² in cities and less than 50/km² in the rest of the country

Official languages:Romanian (100%)

Member of: European Union, NATO, UN

Geography and Climate

Romania is situated in geographical centre of Europe (south-east of Central Europe) at north of Balkan Peninsula at half of distance between Atlantic Coast and The Urals, inside and outside the Carpathians Arch, on the Danube (1,075 km) lower course and has exit to the Black Sea.

Otherwise, parallel 45⁰N with the meridian 25⁰E intersects near the geometrical centre of the country, 100 km N-V of the country capital, Bucharest.

Romaniais the twelfth country of Europe, having an area of 238,391 km².

The exit to the sea enables the connections with the countries in the Black Sea basin, in the Mediterranean Sea basin and, by means of this, rest of the world.

Romanian seaside of the Black Sea is lying on 244 km, between Musura stream (at the border with Ukraine) and Vama Veche village (at the border with Bulgaria).

Romania’s relief consists of three major levels: the highest one of the Carpathians (the highest peak Moldoveanu 2,544 m), the middle one which corresponds to the Sub-Carpathians, to the hills and to the plateaus and the lowest one in plains, meadows and Danube Delta. The Danube Delta, the youngest relief unit under permanent formation, has the average height of 0.52 m.

Main features of relief units are proportionality (31% mountains, 36% hills and plateaus, 33% plains and meadows) and concentric display of the relief major levels.

Romania’s climate is temperate-continental of transition, with oceanic influences from the West, Mediterranean ones from South-West and continental-excessive ones from the East. Multiannual average temperature is latitudinal different, 8⁰C in the North and over 11⁰C in the South, and attitudinally, with values of -2.5⁰C in the mountain floor (Omu peak – Bucegi massif) and 11.6⁰C in the plain (Zimnicea town – Teleorman county).

Yearly precipitations decrease in intensity from west to east, from over 600 mm to less 500 mm in the East Romanian Plain, under 450 mm in Dobrogea and about 350 mm by seaside, in the mountainous areas they reach 1,000 -1,500 mm.

Environmental Governance

 The Romanian environmental institutions protect the population from excessive exposure to noise, harmful substances and organisms, non-ionising radiation and natural hazards through its environmental and resources policy. At the same time they have a duty to conserve natural resources such as land, water, air, forest, climate and biodiversity for the future, applying the precautionary principle if necessary, and must rectify serious damage.  

In Romania, environment affairs are the responsibility of the Ministry of Environment and Forest together with all the subordinating institutions and with all the others institutions (under the coordination or under the authority of the Ministry).

One of these institutions is NEPA (National Environmental Protection Agency) which has the following:

1. Mission

The National Environmental Protection Agency has been intended to work so as to ensure a healthy environment, in line with Romania's economical development and its social progress. Our mission, as well as that of the regional and local environmental agencies, consists in ensuring a better environment for the present and future generations, through a continuous enhancement of air, soil and water quality. For these reasons, NEPA has attributes in the following areas:

• Strategic environmental planning
• Environmental factors monitoring
• Permitting of activities which have an impact on the environment
• Implementation of the environmental legislation and policies at national, regional and local level
• Reporting to the European Environment Agency, through the Eionet network, the priority data flows for air quality, climate change, protected areas, contaminated soil and water.
• Responsibilities
• Providing technical support for the substantiation of the legislation, sector strategies and policies, according to the acquis communautaire, and based on the concept of sustainable development
• Implementation of the environmental legislation
• Coordinating the implementation of environmental strategies and policies at national, regional and local level
• Representation in the external and internal relations, according to the mandate of the Ministry of Environment
• Permitting the activities having an impact on the environment and providing the compliance with the legal provisions
• Management of the national reference laboratories for air, waste, noise, vibrations and radioactivity
• Coordination of the development of the sector action plans and of the national environmental protection action plan

Web links:

NEPA: www.anpm.ro

Ministry of Environment and Forest: www.mmediu.ro

Population

The total number of population grow up constantly between 1960 and 2007 (18,403,414 was in 1960 and 21,537,563 in 2007).

Population by sex – 51.3% female and 48.7% male (1^st of July 2007).

Life expectancy grows up between 2001 and 2007 – for male: 67.4 years in 2001 to 69.2 years in 2007; for female: 74.8 years in 2001 to 76.1 years in 2007.

Weblinks:

Romanian National Institute of Statistics: www.insse.ro

Economy

Romaniahas a stable economy which grows after 2000. In 2008 Romania had the biggest growing economy of European Union – approx. 8.5%.

Fear of unemployment has been one of the main concerns of the Romania for several years. The unemployment rate low down from 8.4% in 2000 to 4% in 2007.

Weblinks:

Romanian National Institute of Statistics: www.insse.ro

Prior to 1989, Romania’s economy was characterised by a high share of energy-intensive industries and a poor energy-saving culture. The restructuring of the manufacturing sector, which was done by contraction of activities rather than by enhanced efficiency, resulted in a 40% reduction of energy intensity between 1990 and 2000.

Romania’s general situation is characterised by a late transition towards a functional market economy, with additional complications generated by an inadequate management, in the framework of a difficult historical legacy, and some severe structural distortions revealed during the last 3-4 decades.

Between 2001 and 2007, Romania’s macroeconomic performance improved significantly despite less than favourable international circumstances. The growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) posted an average annual rate of more than 6%, one of the highest in the region, and was accompanied by a sustained and largely successful process of macro-stabilisation. In 2007, the GDP reached a total of about Euro 121.3 billion, three times over the figure for the year 2000. None the less, the GDP per capita calculated at standard purchasing power parity represented only some 41% of the EU average.

After 1990, the Romanian economy underwent important structural changes, marked by transfers of activity from manufacturing industries and farming first to services and then to construction. In the early stages, the restructuring of manufacturing industries caused a reduction of their contribution to GDP formation from about 40% in 1990 to about 25% in 1999. After 2000, structural decline was halted and the contribution of industrial activities to the GDP held steady. It is significant that, in 2007, the private sector created 86.6% of the gross value added in industry compared to 68.4% in 2000. The share of the service sector rose from 26.5% of the GDP in 1990 to about 50% in 2007.

Romaniais still an inefficient user of electrical power generated with high costs, great losses (around 30-35% from the primary consumed resources), and a low economical yield.

Romania’s agriculture is still in decline due to excessive fragmentation of land property (subsistence farming is predominant), poor endowment with machines and equipment, precarious state of rural infrastructure, low amounts of chemical or organic fertilizers and pesticides used, dramatic reduction of irrigated areas, soil degradation, chronic deficit of available financing and the absence of a functional system of farming credit.