Introduction:
Romania was formed in 1859 by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina e Bessarabia. Shortly after the Second World War the Soviets occupied parts of its territories and Romania signed an armistice. This post-war occupation led to the formation of a Communist “people’s republic”, in 1947. In 1965, the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu started his long decades of terror in Romania. And, although Ceausescu was overthrown and executed in 1989, former communists dominated the government for a couple of years more.
Romania has been a member of the European Union since January 1, 2007 and it is a semi-presidential unitary state.
Basic Geography:
Romania is a central European country with a surface of 238.391 km2. It shares borders with Hungary and Serbia to the west, with Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast and with Bulgaria to the south. Romania has also a small part of coast along the Black Sea. The Danube, being a river that passes through many eastern capitals, like Bratislava and Vienna, is a big asset for this country because most of its delta is located within its territory, flourishing its commercial relations.
Romania also possesses a lot of natural resources, like for example: timber, coal, iron ore, salt, arable land (39.49% of total country land), hydropower, natural gas and petroleum. This last two will be looked in more detail in the economic analysis.
Demographics:
This is the ninth largest territory in the EU with over 22 million people (7th largest market). And the capital city, Bucharest, is the sixth largest city in the EU with almost 2 million habitants accounting for 21% of the GDP with only 9.1% of the population.
As ...