Page 39 - Romania 100

The celebration of the Great Union Centenary takes place in a geopolitical context characterised by changes and challenges that make us reflect on the contribution that modern Romania can have to global stability, prosperity and security. The year 2018 finds Romania as a democratic state, deeply anchored in the European and the North- Atlantic area, on the threshold of a very important exercise for its membership of the European Union, the taking over for 6 months starting from January 2019 of the rotating Presidency of the EU Council.
Our country’s diplomatic relations and strategic partnerships with other international partners continue to have a key role in shaping Romania’s position as an important actor on the geopolitical scene in Europe and worldwide. In this context, the relationship between Romania and Italy is a special, even a privileged one and is based on historical, cultural and linguistic ties dating back almost two millennia, which played an important part in asserting the Romanian nation in a universal context as is the one offered by Rome, the reference centre of the world for many centuries. This affinity is an essential element in understanding the depth of the Romanian-Italian relationship.
Such ties have been acknowledged eversince the formation and assertion of the modern Romanian state, as evidenced by the epistolary exchanges between Benito Cavour and Vasile Alecsandri, or by the presence of Galaţi
inhabitants in Garibaldi’s army. Moreover, the leading representatives of the Transylvanian School (Școala Ardeleană) were educated in Rome, the city that generated the enthusiasm and national consciousness that led, on December 1, 1918, to Romania’s unification with Transylvania, through the expression of the free and conscious will of the Romanians living in Transylvania and Banat. Rome is also the place that saw the writing of the memoirs of the Greek Catholic bishop Inochentie Micu Klein, a distinguished personality and model who inspired and continues to inspire the Romanian nation to achieve its best destiny and to reinvent itself.
The memoirs of Bishop Inochentie, a true manual of patriotism, can be an antidote to the current disinterest in moral aesthetics and in the importance of serving the national interest.
Therefore the formation of national consciousness is closely related to the ‘city of the seven hills’ and the state visit that President Klaus Iohannis undertook this year in Italy - the only state visit abroad in the centenary year - strengthened the strong relationship between Romania and Italy, connected already by 10 years of Strategic Consolidated Partnership.
Starting from the very symbol of this special connection, Trajan's Column - a genuine ‘birth certificate of the Romanian people’, I am delighted to remember a special event that we organized this year in Rome on the occasion of
the state visit, namely the lighting of the Column in the colours of the Romanian flag. In the context of the Great Union Centenary, we wanted to emphasize, by this symbolic manifestation, the connection between Romania and Italy, which continues through economic, political, diplomatic, cultural relations and, of course, through the presence of the largest community of Romanians outside Romania.
The well-integrated Romanian community in Italy, which contributes to the economic and social development of the host country, is undoubtedly a solid bridge between the two societies, alongside the Italian community in Romania.
There are 1 190 091 Romanians residing in Italy and their contribution is not only to the state budget. About 157 000 Romanian students are attending schools and universities in Italy: the most significant foreign presence in the Italian education system. Many Romanian citizens also work in the fields of healthcare, academia, culture, research, agriculture and construction. Our fellow citizens are also engaged in social care, taking care of children or the elderly. The presence of the Romanian citizens, their growing entrepreneurial activity and the large number of mixed families (Romanian-Italian) reflect a very good level of integration and an intense social dialogue between our societies. According to the available data (Unioncamere and Cerved), in 2017, more than 24 000 capital and people companies and 49 317 individual enterprises set up by
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