WELCOME MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Honorable Colleagues and Friends,

Thank you very much for honoring us with your presence at the XXth International Symposium of Morphological Sciences (ISMS) organized by the Board of Members and Delegates of the International Committee of Symposia of Morphological Science.

Having been  the General Secretary of the XIth and XVIIth International Symposium held in Timisoara, Romania, I have always wished you would come back again to Romania- now an European Union member, and in particular to Timisoara – a dynamic city, rich in color and contrast, with warm and hospitable people. Here we are again at the XXth International Symposium of Morphological Sciences in Timisoara. I would like to reaffirm you that this meeting is enriched with a lot of refreshing and mind storming intellectual and social events necessary for an excellent Symposium: diverse participants from all the world, Plenary Speakers, Video and Poster presentations, variety of Workshops on important scientific Issues which will give room for more discussion and interactions, and above all top notch Morphological Scientist.

I want to reassure you that the organizing Committee is at your disposal, committed to make your stay an enjoyable and lively one. Finally, I hope you find the Symposium a valuable resource in your professional and educational activities.
Enjoy!

Prof.Dr. Petru L. Matusz
President of XX International Symposium on Morphological Sciences
2008, Timişoara, Romania

GENERAL INFORMATION

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE
The official language of the Meeting is English. No simultaneous translation will be provided.

LETTER OF INVITATION
The congress will be pleased to send a formal letter of invitation to any individual requesting one. It is understood that such an invitation is intended to help potential delegates to raise funds or to obtain a visa. This does not imply a commitment from the congress to provide any financial support. Letters of invitation may be requested from the congress office.

VISA
Romania is a member of the European Union state. Please check the current visa requirements with your travel agent.

INSURANCE
The congress fee does not include insurance. All participants should arrange for their own insurance.  Delegates are advised to take out travel insurance to cover medical expenses, accidents, loss, etc.
No responsibility will be accepted by the Symposium Organisers.

CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE
Upon arrival all registered delegates will receive a certificate of attendance

PLEASE NOTE
This is a preliminary programme and may be subject to change.
Please check the www.isms2008.com  for updated programme details.

TRAVEL INFORMATIONS

HOW TO GET TIMISOARA BY PLANE

The city is served by Romania's second-largest airport, Traian Vuia International Airport, that is 10km far from the city center. It is the hub of the Romania's second-largest airline, Carpatair. There are regular flights from and to all major European and domestic destinations.  Car hire is available at the airport. [http://www.aerotim.ro/ Timişoara airport]
Timisoara Traian Vuia International Airport has convenient to major European airports such as Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Paris.
The following airlines provide direct flights to Timisoara  Airport - Tarom, Carpatair, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Malev, Club Air, Alpi Eagles, Alitalia.

International flights:

• ITALY - Ancona, Bari, Bergamo, Bologna, Florenta, Milano, Pescara, Roma, Venetia, Verona,Torino
• GERMANY - Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart
• FRANCE – Paris
• AUSTRIA – Vienna
• HuNGARY – Budapest
• REPUBLICA MOLDOVA – Chişinău
  UKRAINA -  Lvov

Rent-a-car
Transportation by car to the Airport / Timisoara and back

Avis: +40-256-203-234
Budget: +40-256-491-637 int. 2241
Europcar: +40-256-491-637 int. 2242
Hertz: +40-256-220-552
Sixt: +40-256-386-074
Thrifty: +40-256-386-013
City Car: +40-256-386-090
TaxiOmnitour:  0748-110-531

HOW TO GET TIMISOARA BY CAR

Belgrade (Serbia) is 150km or 2 1/2 hours away by car.
Budapest (Hungary) is 320km away by car.

HOW TO GET TIMISOARA BY TRAIN

Munchen-Wien-Budapest-Timisoara and Cluj Napoca-Timisoara with EC 46.
Budapest-Timisoara with TRAIANUS IC or BEGA EXPRESS or KÖRÖS (CRIŞ) IC.
Belgrade-Timisoara with 260-1 IC.

HYSTORY

Documentary attested since the XIIIth century (in the year 1342 it was even mentioned as “civitas”- town), Timisoara dates back in time earlier than the first documents about it, archeological materials proving the existence of a Roman settlement on the present site of Timisoara.

The name Timisoara comes from “Castri de Thymes” (defence works built at the beginning of the XIth century for the surveillance of fords and roads), preserving the old daco-roman name of the river Timis from the speech of the local inhabitants.

Being the farthest among the urban centers in the west of Romania, with a population of more than 400.000 inhabitants, Timisoara is situated in an area open to the European penetration. Bucharest is 533 km from Timisoara on the railroad and Belgrade and Budapest are reachable in few hours by train or by car. One can say that the existence of the international airport makes the distances between Timisoara and other cities of the world shorter, Timisoara having a large international openness. Timisoara also has a particular trait among the other towns of Romania. Many nationalities live in an atmosphere of peace and understanding in Timisoara, so that not only the Romanian language, but also the Hungarian, the German and the Serbian-Croatian languages are spoken here.

Being strategically placed and getting involved in holding back the Ottoman advancement towards the Central Europe,Timisoara makes its history a chapter of the history of Europe. All historical epochs let their own mark upon Timisoara; it is their joint influences that have lent it a remarkable unity and equilibrium in spite of the inherent hetrogenity.

The town was built in the middle of a plain covered till the XVIIIth century by marshes formed after the floods of the rivers Timis and Bega. From this point of view, the many imposing buildings that embellish the streets of the town, make us realize the difficulty of the work of the architects of those times, who had to find technical solutions required by that kind of land, besides the esthetical aspect of the buildings.

The central and the oldest area of the town is suggestively called “The Citadel”. This was the nucleus from which the development of the town started. The Citadel underwent important changes, especially under the Habsburg domination, its complete restoration being accomplished around the year 1765.At that time, it was considered one of the four important citadels of the Habsburg Monarchy. The oldest architectonic monuments of Timisoara, except the Castle, date from that century (the XVIIIth century).

The Castle, today the Banat Museum, was originally built between the years 1307-1315,another Castle being built by Iancu of Hunedoara between the years 1443-1447 on the same site.It was reconstructed approximately in its present shape in the year 1856.

Squares and streets with nicely lined up buildings, with churches , monuments and administrative palaces make the architectonic decoration of the citadel:

• The Union Square with the Roman-Catholic Cathedral (the Dome) built in 1763, by the Viennese architect Fischer von Erlach Junior, blending classic patterns and baroque decorations; the Serbian Orthodox Church, erected between 1744 and 1748, having very nice baroque sculptures; the Baroque Palace (the President’s House), existing since 1733, restored and completed in the following century; the monument of the Holy Trinity sculptured in Vienna in 1739-1740, remarkable baroque work situated in the middle of the square, representing a group of human beings suffering from plague which, unfortunately, haunted Timisoara more than just one time.
• The Liberty Square, the military center of the town, dominated by the Commander in Chief’s Residence (1744-1753) with its rococo-decorated fassade; the Old Townhall erected between 1731 and 1734 on the foundations of a former Turkish Bath; the War Chancellery (1730) sculptured by Blim and Wasserburger in Vienna.
• Other monumental edifices dating from the same period adorn the architecture of the Citadel near the two squares: the Episcopal Palace, the Deschan Palace, the Mercy Palace, the Theresia Bastion, the Greco-Catholic Church from the Fabric district.

The monumental buildings from the XIXth century are in a greater number and make a specific trait of the architecture of the town: the Dicasterial Palace (1855-1860), the biggest building of Timisoara, the facades being decorated in the Florentin Renascence style; the Higher Science School (today the Lenau Highschool); the New Synagogue(1863-1865), situated near the Union Square, with its Moorish style bringing a special “color” into the architecture of the place; the New Synagogue from the Fabric district (1899) built also in Moorish style; the Roman-Catholic Church from the Fabric district (1896), built in Roman style, etc. Among the historical monuments of the last century we mention: Victory Memorial (today in the Lipovei Street Cemetery), set up to commemorate the victory of the Austrian troops in the Revolution of 1848/49; the St. Mary’s Monument, erected in St. Mary’s Square, in the place where, according to tradition, Gheorghe Doja (leader of the peasant uprising against feudalism in 1514) was executed. Legends say that, while Gheorghe Doja was tortured, the Jesuit monks who were singing religious hymns, saw St. Mary’ face. The present shape of the monument dates from 1 906 and it is made of Carrara marble. It rests inside a Roman granite chapel.

One of the most beautiful achievements of Romania between the two World Wars is the Victory Square dominated by the National Theatre (1923–1928 ) built in Neo-Byzantine style and the Orthodox Cathedral (1936–1946 ) realized in the traditional Romanian architecture (Moldavian style). The sides of the square are occupied by monumental buildings (the Lloyd Palace, the Lofler Palace, the Dauerbac Palace, the Merbl Palace). In the middle of the square one can see the Mother – Wolf statue the gift from Rome in the year 1926, as a symbol of the Latin origin of the Romanian people.

Along the time, Timisoara has proven to be a modern city, being even from the previous century in the avant-garde of the renewing changes regarding the improvement of urban life ( the telephone line was installed in the year 1881 and the Electric Factory was built after three years ). Timisoara was the first town in Europe which used on November 12, 1884 the electricity for the lightening of the streets. In the year 1895 they started covering the main streets with asphalt and in 1899, on July 27 the first electric tram line was inaugurated. The old wood bridges were rebuilt with metal support and the first cinema of Timisoara was inaugurated (1908). In Iosefin district they built one of the most beautiful railway stations of those times.

No doubt a distinctive charm is given by the gardens and the green areas all along the Bega Cannel as well as all over the town, Timisoara deserving to be called “the town of gardens and of roses”. Among the green areas of Timisoara we can mention: the People’s Park (1868), the Central Park (the second half of the last century), dominated by the Monument of the Romanian Soldier, the Doina Park, the Plevna Park (after 1900) and later on, Rosarium (the Roses Garden), the Alpinet Park, the Children’s Park, etc.

Timisoara is also one of the most important educational and cultural centers of Romania. In the year 1941 Timisoara had 52 school edifices offering training opportunities without any discrimination of nationality or religion, there being used several teaching languages: Romanian, Hungarian, German, Serbian,etc. The press enjoied freedom of expression and very good editing conditions. 125 publications in the Romanian language and 104 publications in the Hungarian language existed between the two World Wars. The theatrical life developed remarkably after the West Theatre was born (1934).The university life of Timisoara began with the birth of the School of Politechnics (1920). Afterwards the Institute of Agronomy (1945), the School of Medicine (1945) and the University of the West were set up.

Along its existence, Timisoara has achieved many great things. But most of them were “shadowed” by the Communist regime, the period of material shortage, lack of freedom, moral and spiritual oppression. On December 16–22, 1989, a very important page was written by Timisoara in the History Book of the Romanian people. Timisoara was the town where the Revolution that lead to the defeat of the Communist regime started, proving once again its European spirituality convergent on the perennial values of democracy.

Timisoara of the end of the millenium?
A city with a substantial modern vocation proved by its architecture as well as by the culture and the conceptions of its inhabitants.

CITY ESSENTIALS

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Several bus, tram and trolleybus routes connect Timisoara's main areas and tourist attractions. The public transportation system runs between 4:45am and 11:15pm. Tickets must be purchased beforehand and validated in the ticket-stamping machine upon boarding. Tickets are interchangeable for all three forms of transport with the exception of express buses.

TAXI COMPANIES
City Taxi - 949
Dacia Taxi - 944
Eco Taxi - (256) 120.120
Getax - 962 or (256) 134.470
Grup Taxi - 946
Radio Taxi - 940
Regal Taxi - 943
Tudo Taxi - 945
Vest Taxi - 953

SHOPPING
Antiques
Andreas Antik
Address: 2, Unirii Square
Tel: (256) 131.746
Antic Davi
Address: 4, Miron Costin Str.
Ars Mundi
Address: 10, Vasile Alecsandri Str.
Tel: (256) 136.003
Filimonex
Address: 28, Stefan cel Mare Str.
Tel: (256) 224.462
Sananticus
Address: 3, Gheorghe Lazar Str.
Tel: (256) 133.103
Wella
Address: 24,  Eugeniu de Savoia Str.
Tel: (256) 202.262

Handicrafts
Folk crafts, such as embroidered clothing and linen, painted or beaded eggs, carpets, pottery, woodcarvings and icons, make interesting gifts and souvenirs. Romanian peasants do magnificent embroidery on cotton, wool and leather. Look for blouses, skirts, exotic coats, rugs, tablecloths and lacework. Icons, new and old, painted on glass or wood are outstanding.
Hermes Tim
Address: 4, Victoriei Square
Modex
Address: 3. Iancu of Hunedoara Square
Stirex
Address: 2A , Vasile Alecsandri Str. (Libertatii Square)
Tel: (256) 432.353

TOURIST INFO
Timisoara Tourist Information Centre (Centrul de Informare Turistica)
Address: 5. Proclamatia de la Timisoara Str.
Tel: (256) 437.973
E-mail: infocentru@ccmtm.ro
Open: Mon. – Sat. 10:00am – 6:00pm; Closed Sun.

WEATHER
Timisoara Weather Forecast
www.weather.com

TELEPHONING
Telephoning Timisoara from abroad
International Access Code +40 (country code) + 256 or 356 (area code) + telephone number (six digit numbers)

PHARMACIES & HOSPITALS
There are several pharmacies open 24 hours a day in the city.
Emergency Clinic Hospital (County Clinical Hospital No 1 Timisoara)
Address: 10, Iosif Bulbuca Av.
Tel: (356) 433.111

CITY LANDMARKS

In many respects, it is the abundance of Secessionist architecture that has provided Timisoara with its rather appropriate moniker, "Little Vienna." Secessionism developed in two distinct architectural phases here. Sinuous lines and floral decorations characterized the first phase which lasted until 1908.  The second phase, which continued until the First World War, saw simpler, larger buildings with geometrical designs. Secessionism in Romania was an important link between the Byzantine style and later modernist architecture.


Victory Square (Piata Victoriei)

Some of the city’s most interesting sites are its elegant baroque buildings, spread around town and particularly along the main square, Piata Victoriei, which stretches from Opera Square (Piata Operei) to Loga Boulevard.

The focal point is the towering Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral (Catedrala Ortodoxa Mitropolitana) at the south side of the square. Built between 1936 and 1946, its green and red roof tiles are arranged in a mosaic design. In front of the Cathedral is a memorial to those who lost their lives during the 1989 Revolution which overthrew Communist rule. The Memorial Museum of the 1989 Revolution (Muzeul Revolutiei) offers a full insight into the revolution in Timisoara

Union Square (Piata Unirii)

Across the town centre is the picturesque Habsburg-era Piata Unirii, so-named for the imposing sight of the Romano-Catholic and Serbian Orthodox Cathedrals facing each other. Historic pastel-hued buildings line the square. During the 18th century, this was the city’s commercial centre and the venue for numerous military processions and religious ceremonies.

Nicolas Lenau College (Liceul Nicolas Lenau), located on the north side of the square, was built in 1761 and was home to the earliest theatre in Timisoara.

The baroque Serbian Orthodox Cathedral (Biserica Orthodoxa Sarba), built in 1745-48, and the mint green and white Serbian Bishop's Residence (Vicariatul Ortodox Sarb) with its extravagant decorations are located on the west side of the square. The Cathedral can be visited daily between 7am and 6pm.

The Roman Catholic Cathedral (Catedrala Episcopala Romano-Catolica) on the east side of the square was built between 1736 and 1754 to the design of Fisher von Erlach and represents a fine example of Viennese baroque style. The main altar painting was completed by Michael Angelo Unterberger, director of the Fine Arts Academy in Vienna.

The impressive 18th century Baroque Palace (Palatul Vechii Prefecturi) dominates the square’s south side. Formerly the governor’s residence, it now houses the Museum of Fine Arts with works by German, Flemish and Italian artists.

At the northwest corner of Piata Unirii stands the spectacular Scont Bank (Banca de Scont). This typical Hungarian-style art nouveau structure, built in the early 20th century, features an organic shape comprising curved walls studded with turquoise tiles forming patterns drawn from folklore, and extravagant iron gutters and window grills.

From Piata Unirii, walk east along Str. Palanca to the oldest building in Timisoara, now housing the Banat Etnographic Museum  within the city’s remaining 18th century bastion.

Freedom Square (Piata Libertatii) to
Victory Square (Piata Victoriei)

Another remarkable open space in the city is Freedon Square (Piata Libertatii) which offers a great display of Secessionist architecture. The Banat region was under Turkish rule from 1552 until 1716 when the Austrian-Habsburg Prince Eugene de Savoy took over Timisoara. At this time, a seven-star- shaped bastion and gate-towers were constructed and the marshes surrounding the town were drained by the new Habsburg governor, General Mercy.

Continue along Str. Lucian Blaga to the 14th century Huniade Castle (Castelui Huniade). Built during the rule of Carol Robert, Prince de Anjou, it was completed by Iancu of Hundeoara and redesigned by the Habsburgs in the 18th century.



Residential areas

South and east of the Bega Canal are the Josefin, Elisabetin and Fabric residential districts, true gems of Jugendstil, or art nouveau, architecture, built mainly in the late 19th century. The small residential square of Piata Plevnei, south of the Bega Canal, is bordered by excellent examples of the first phase of Secessionist architecture, such as Gemeinhardt's Peacock House (Casa cu Pauni) built in 1905. Facades are covered with an abundance of typical motifs: peacocks, swans, owls and squirrels together with sinuous vines and foliage. The theme continues on the buildings lining Splaiul Tudor Vladimirescu, following the south bank of the Bega, and to a lesser extent, around nearby Piata Maria and Bulevardul 16 Decembrie 1989.

Jewish Timisoara

Even though Jewish presence in the Banat region dates back to the 2nd century AD, the first written mention of the Jewish community in Timisoara occurred in 1716, when the Turkish army commander surrendered the town to the Austrian Prince Eugeniu of Savoia.

In the old Sephardic cemetery, graves dating to the Turkish occupation may be seen, the oldest belonging to Azriel Assael, a Rabbi and surgeon who died in 1636. A century latter, Rabbi Meir Amigo and four followers from Istanbul were allowed to settle in the city. Following the implementation of citizen rights acts in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Timisoara’s Jewish community flourished, reaching a population of almost 7,000. Six synagogues were built in the city after 1867, the year of the Austro-Hungarian reconciliation. Today, three remain with one still active.

The New Synagogue in Fabric (Sinagoga din Fabric)
Address: Str. Splaiul Coloniei 2
One of the most beautiful buildings in Timisoara, the synagogue in the Fabric district was built in 1899 by Hungarian architect Lipot Baumhorn in a traditional Moorish style. It is currently closed for structural repairs.

Great Synagogue (Sinagoga Cetate)
Address: Str: Resita 55
This Neolog-rite synagogue, built in Oriental style in 1865, resembles the great synagogue in Oran, Algeria. One of the largest synagogues in Europe, it is currently closed for structural repairs.

Orthodox Synagogue
Address: Iosefin district
Built between 1906 and 1910, this Orthodox Synagogue is the only one in service at this moment.

TIMISOARA MUSEUMS

BANAT MUSEUM (Muzeul Banatului)
Address: 1,  Huniade Square
Tel: (256) 491.339
Open: Tue. – Sun. 10:00am – 4:30pm; Closed Mon.
Admission charge
Occupying a 14th century castle, this museum boasts sizeable historical and natural history sections.

BANAT MUSEUM, ETHNOGRAPHIC SECTION (Muzeul Banatului, Sectia de Etnografie)
Address: 4. Popa Sapca Str.
Tel: (256) 491.339  
Open: Tue. – Sun. 10:00am – 4:30pm; Closed Mon.
Admission charge
Exhibits of textiles, folk costumes, and glass-painted icons are on display.


MEMORIAL MUSEUM OF THE 1989 REVOLUTION (Muzeul Revolutiei)
Address: 8, Emanuil Ungureanu  Str. (behind Unirii Square)
Tel: (256) 294.936
Email: amrtim@lasting.ro
Open: Mon. – Sun. 9:00am – 5:00pm
Free admission
The Memorial Museum exhibits uniforms of Romanian militia and military, written testimonies of witnesses and participants in the Revolution, official and personal documents, an audio-visual archive, a library and a collection of newspapers. A video charting the rise and fall of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu may be shown on request.


TIMISOARA ART MUSEUM (Muzeul de Arta)
Address: 2, Mercy Str.
Tel: (256) 491.339
www.muzeuldeartatm.ro
Open: Tue. – Sun. 10:00am – 6:00pm; Closed Mon.
Admission charge
The collection includes works of 15th – 17th century Italian masters and prints by important European artists.


BANAT VILLAGE MUSEUM (Muzeul Satului Banatean)
Address: 1, CFR Road
Tel: (256) 225.588
Email: office@msbtm.ro
www.msbtm.ro
Open: Tue. – Sun. 1:00pm – 8:00pm; Closed Mon.
Admission charge
This open-air museum, located three miles from the city centre, exhibits more than 30 traditional peasant houses dating from the 19th century. Wood, stone and clay homes were taken piece by piece and set up in the beautiful surroundings of Padurea Verde (Green Forest). Craftsmen's fairs and folk shows are held here periodically.

Serbian Bishops’ Collection (Muzeul Diocezei Ortodoxe Sarbesti)
Address4,  Unirii Square
Tel: (256) 430.426
Open: Mon. – Sun. 7:30am – 3:30pm
Admission charge
The collection includes portraits and outstanding 18th century icons.

PERFORMING ARTS

SYMPHONIC MUSIC

Banat Philharmonic
Address: 2, C.D. Loga Av.
Tel. (256) 495.012

OPERA & BALLET

Romanian Opera House
Address: 2, Marasesti Str.Tel: (256) 201.283
The construction of the Romanian Opera House, began in 1871 and ended four years later, in 1875. The design was that of Viennese architects, Helmer and Fellner, the authors of numerous concert halls in Budapest , Vienna and Odessa . The murals in the concert hall are inspired by history and popular Romanian fairytales. Opera in Timisoara was appreciated as far back as the end of the 18th century. Joseph Strauss started out as Musical Director at Timisoara , where he composed and presented the world premiere of Faust's Life and Deeds. Franz Liszt also performed in Timisoara in 1846.

THEATRE

National Theatre
Address: 2, Marasesti Str.
Tel: (256) 201.288

German State Theatre
Address: 2, Marasesti Str.
Tel: (256) 201.291

Hungarian State Theatre
Address: 2,  Alba Iulia Str.
Tel: (256) 134.814

Puppet Theatre

Address: 3, Tineretii Av.
Tel: (256) 193.049

VENUE

The XX International Symposium on Morphological Sciences will be held at:
THE REGIONAL CENTER OF AFFAIRS TIMISOARA (CENTRUL REGIONAL DE AFACERI TIMISOARA).

300575 Timisoara. Romania,
B-dul Eroilor de la Tisa nr. 22,
tel: +40.748-112.822,
fax: +40.256-228.709

CONTACT US

Your Comments or Questions
Please contact the symposium organizer if you have comments or questions about the XX International Symposium on Morphological Sciences 2008.

President of  XX ISMS 2008
Prof.Dr. Petru L.MATUSZ
E-mail: matusz@umft.ro
Website: www.isms2008.com

Regional Center of Affairs Timisoara (CRAFT)
Phone: +40 256 220526; +40748 112822
Fax: +40 256 228709
Web site: www.cciat.ro/

S.C. Convention & Event Professionals S.R.L.
Phone/Fax: +40 256 244468
Phone/Fax: +40 356 108089
Phone/Fax: +40 356 108090
Phone: +40 723 217803
Phone: +40 721 210161
E-mail: convention@eventprofessionals.ro
E-mail: office@eventprofessionals.ro 
Website: www.eventprofessionals.ro

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION

GENERAL INFORMATIONS
Authors are requested to conform to the following guidelines for submission of abstracts:

1. The abstract must be written in English.
2. All submited abstracts must represent original work.
3. It is the author's responsibility to submit a correct abstract. Any errors in spelling, grammar or scientific facts will be reproduced as typed by the author.
4. Deadline: abstracts MUST BE RECEIVED no later than July 15, 2008. A registration of the presenter must be made at latest by July 15 to guarantee publication of the abstract in the Proceedings. Later registrations will lead to an exclusion of the abstract. The author can state his preference for the type of presentation the final decision is with the Scientific Board.
5. Online abstract submissions are required (if this is not possible, please contact the symposium organizer).
6.  The presenting authors must register for the symposium and pay the registration fee and attend the meeting. Authors of accepted abstracts are not provided with travel funds.
7. Please try to limit your author list to 5.
8. All accepted abstracts for presentation will be included on the Abstracs Book that is distributed at the symposium.
9. Notification of acceptance or rejection by the Scientific Committee will be mailed to the corresponding author by July 31, 2008.

GUIDELINES for FORMATTING
The length of the abstract of the abstract is limited to one (1) B4 page, separately placed in the Abstract Book. The abstract must be sized 19.5cm/12.5cm.
For abstract submission it is obligatory to fill out the specific abstract form:

1. Please use 11 point Arial font and avoid enhancements and underlining.
2. The heading of the abstract (title, authors, affiliations and e-mail address) (maximum 300 characters including spaces) must be aligned left. It must be organized in 4 lines, as following:

• 1st line: TITLE IN BOLD BLOCK LETTERS (without abbreviations).
• 2nd line: Authors list. Please type the first author last name in CAPITALS first, followed by the first name, and middle initial. The remaining authors follow with their first name first, middle initial and last name (in CAPITALS). CAPITALIZE last names and middle initials. For first names, Capitalize first letter only. The name of the presenting author must be followed by an asterisk (*). Superscript numbers must be used after the last name for reference to affiliation.
• 3rd line: list of authors’ affiliations (department, university/institution, city, country).
• 4th line: E-mail address of the corresponding author should be provided.

3. The heading and the body of the abstract must be separated by a single empty line.
4. The body of the abstract (maximun length 2.300 charactes including spaces – 350 words) must be justified at right. The text of the abstract should briefly state in 5 distinctive paragraphs: Background, Objectives (indicate the purpose of the study or the hypothesis being tested), Methods, Results (present the outcome of the study), Conclusions.
5. It is not satisfactory to say "the results will be discussed.
6. Please use standard abbreviations for units of measure. Other abbreviations should be spelled out in full at first mention, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses.
7. Please do not paste tables in the abstract body.
8. References MUST NOT be included in the abstract.
9. 8. Please include (if necessary) the source of research support on the bottom line of the abstract.

Abstract formatting exemple:

TITLE AUTHORS Afilliation   E-mail Single empty line Background Objectives   Methods   Results               Conclusions Source of research support

THE ABSENCE OF THE RIGHT BRANCH OF THE PORTAL HEPATIC VEIN AS A MORPHOLOGIC ENTITY STUDY ON CORROSION CASTS. MATUSZ Petru L1*, Agneta Maria PUSZTAI1, Cristian C.STEFAN2, Ancuta M.STEFAN2 1 Department of Anatomy-Embriology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy „Victor Babes” Timişoara, Romania 2Department of Cell Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, U.S.A. matusz@umft.ro The trunck ... According to....   The corrosion ....   A percentage ....               Utilization of ....   Supported by ....

OVERVIEW

• Full name: Romania
• Population: 21.4 million (UN, 2007)
• Capital: Bucharest
• Area: 238,391 sq km (92,043 sq miles)
• Major language: Romanian
• Major religion: Christianity
• Life expectancy: 69 years (men), 76 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 new leu = 100 bani
• Main exports: Textiles and footwear, metal products, machinery, minerals
• GNI per capita: US $3,830 (World Bank, 2006)
• Internet domain: .ro
• International dialling code: +40

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Early Human Settlement: Human settlement first occurred in the lands that now constitute Romania during the Pleistocene Epoch, which began about 600,000 years ago. About 5500 B.C. the region was inhabited by Indo-European people, who in turn gave way to Thracian tribes. Today’s Romanians are in part descended from the Getae, a Thracian tribe that lived north of the Danube River. During the Bronze Age (about 2200 to 1200 B.C.), these Thraco-Getian tribes engaged in agriculture, stock raising, and trade with inhabitants of the Aegean Sea coast. As trading relations grew with Greek colonies on the western shore of the Black Sea, Greek culture made inroads in the Thraco-Getian settlements. After withstanding invasions by the Scythians, the Persians, and the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, by about 300 B.C. the Getae had forged a state along the lower Danube. From 112 to 109 B.C., the Getae joined Celts who had settled in their state in invading Roman territory in the western Balkans. In the ensuing decades, Roman influence in the region grew as punitive Roman campaigns sought to limit Getian interference in Roman affairs. After Trajan became Roman emperor in A.D. 98, he launched campaigns to seize control of Getian territory. In A.D. 105 Roman legions captured the Getian capital, Sarmizegetusa (present-day Grǎdiştea Muncelului). Trajan organized the newly conquered land as the province of Dacia. During the next 200 years, a Dacian ethnic group arose as Roman colonists commingled with the Getae and the coastal Greeks. In A.D. 271 the Emperor Aurelian concluded that Dacia could not be defended from an invasion and ordered his army and colonists to withdraw across the Danube. Without Rome’s protection, Dacian settlements were exposed to plunder by invading tribes. The Visigoths, Huns, Ostrogoths, Gepids, and Lombards swept through the land from the third to the fifth centuries. The Avars arrived in the sixth century, along with a steady influx of Slavic peasants. Unlike other tribes, the Slavs settled the land and intermarried with the Dacians. In 676 the first Bulgarian Empire, a unified state to the south, absorbed a large portion of ancient Dacia.
Creation of Moldavia and Walachia: In 896 the Magyars, the last of the migrating tribes to establish a state in Europe, settled in the Carpathian Basin northwest of Dacia. A century later, the Magyar (Hungarian) king Stephen I integrated Transylvania, a region corresponding to the central provinces of modern Romania, into his Hungarian kingdom. The Hungarians constructed fortresses, founded a Roman Catholic bishopric, and began proselytizing Transylvania's indigenous people. In 1241 the Mongols invaded Transylvania from the north and east over the Carpathians. When the Mongols withdrew suddenly in 1242, the Hungarian king Béla IV launched a vigorous reconstruction program in the region. After the Árpád Dynasty of Hungary collapsed in 1301, Transylvania became virtually autonomous.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Transylvanian émigrés founded two principalities, Walachia to the south of Transylvania along the Danube and Moldavia to the northeast. These regions steadily gained strength in the fourteenth century, a peaceful and prosperous time throughout southeastern Europe, and Walachia freed itself from Hungarian sovereignty in 1380. In 1417 Walachia became a principality of the Ottoman Empire, which was in the process of enveloping southeastern Europe. Although Transylvania eventually became an autonomous principality of the empire in 1541, in the fifteenth century Moldavia and Walachia slid into severe decline, and under Ottoman rule all the regions of modern Romania became isolated from the outside world. A notable rebel against the Ottomans in the fifteenth century was Vlad Ţepeş, who as the ruler of Walachia (1456–62) gained a reputation for cruelty on which the Dracula legend was built. The Moldavian prince Stephen (1457–1504) led campaigns to keep his territory free of Hungarian and Ottoman control. He succeeded against the Hungarians but failed against the Ottomans. Aided by the Ottoman defeat of Catholic Hungary, in the sixteenth century the Protestant Reformation spread among Transylvania’s German and Hungarian populations. The government of Transylvania was among the first in Europe to guarantee a limited freedom of religion.
In the late sixteenth century, several regional powers, including the Holy Roman Empire, vied for de facto control of the Ottoman Empire’s Romanian territories. In this complex setting, Michael the Brave of Wallachia (r. 1593–1601) briefly unified Walachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania in 1600 before being assassinated. The legend of Michael’s success later inspired the Romanian struggle for cultural and political unity. In the mid-seventeenth century, Moldavia and Wallachia engaged in a mutually costly struggle for regional influence under their respective enlightened leaders, Vasile Lupu and Matei Basarab. Transylvania, meanwhile, experienced a short golden age early in the century but then was ruled by a series of weak Hungarian leaders.
The Struggle for Transylvania: In 1683 Jan Sobieski's Polish army crushed an Ottoman army besieging Vienna, and Christian forces soon began to roll back the Turkish occupation of Europe. In 1699 the Ottoman government officially recognized Austria's sovereignty over Transylvania. Under the rule of the Austrian house of Habsburg, Roman Catholics dominated Transylvania's more numerous Protestants. Vienna mounted a campaign to convert Orthodox clergymen to the Uniate Church, which retained Orthodox rituals but accepted key points of Catholic doctrine and papal authority.
By the early 1700s, the Uniate Church had emerged as a seminal force in the rise of Romanian nationalism. Uniate clergymen schooled in Rome and Vienna acquainted the Romanians with Western ideas, wrote histories tracing their Daco-Roman origins, and adapted the Latin alphabet to the Romanian language, in which they published grammars and prayer books. Measures taken by Emperor Joseph II (r. 1780–90) to Germanize the empire catalyzed a national awakening among the Romanians and other minority peoples.
In 1848 a wave of revolution passed through Europe, giving Hungary the opportunity to gain control of Transylvania. Unification with Hungary spurred an armed uprising by the Romanian population. In June 1849, however, Nicholas I of Russia heeded an appeal from Emperor Franz Joseph (r. 1848–1916) and sent in troops who extinguished the revolution. Austria then imposed a repressive regime on Hungary and ruled Transylvania directly through a military governor. In this period, dismal conditions caused many Romanians to flee from Transylvania into Walachia and Moldavia.
Russian Influence on Walachia and Moldavia: Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, Ottoman rule over Walachia and Moldavia had been interrupted by periods of Russian occupation. Although the Peace of Bucharest nominally returned the principalities to the Ottomans in 1812, complete Russian withdrawal occurred only in 1834. The uprising of Transylvania's Romanian peasants during the 1848 European revolutions ignited Romanian national movements in Walachia and Moldavia. In response, Nicolas I invaded Moldavia and Walachia. In 1854 Russia, under pressure from the Turks and Franz Joseph, withdrew entirely from Walachia and Moldavia, enabling the Ottoman Empire to regain control.
Unification of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Walachia: In 1856 a campaign to unite Walachia and Moldavia began, and in 1859 assemblies at Bucharest and Iaşi elected the noble Alexandru Ioan Cuza governor of both principalities. All the powers ratified Cuza’s election, and the two principalities officially became Romania in 1861. Cuza’s rule was marked first by reform and then by political instability. Cuza was deposed and replaced by the German Carol (Charles) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (r. 1866–1914), who backed Russia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. After the Ottomans’ defeat in that conflict, Carol proclaimed Romania’s independence, ending five centuries of vassalage. In 1881 the parliament proclaimed Romania a kingdom, and Carol was crowned in Bucharest. Transylvania and Bessarabia, each with a Romanian majority population, remained part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Russian Empire, respectively.
The Kingdom of Romania enjoyed relative peace and prosperity for the next three decades. Walachian wells began pumping oil, a bridge was built across the Danube at Cernavoda (in Dobruja), and new docks rose at Constanţa. Carol equipped a respectable army, and rural schools were built. Romania borrowed heavily to finance such development, however, and most of the population continued to live in poverty. After the outbreak of World War I and the death of Carol, Romania eventually joined the side of Britain, Russia, France, and Italy, declaring war on Austria–Hungary in August 1916 under the leadership of Ferdinand, Carol’s nephew and successor (r. 1914–27).
In 1919 Romanians voted in the country’s first free elections. Two postwar agreements, the Treaty of Saint-Germain with Austria and the Treaty of Trianon with Hungary, more than doubled Romania’s size, adding Transylvania, Dobruja, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and part of the Banat region from Serbia. In this way, the treaties fulfilled the centuries-long dream of uniting all Romanians in a single country.
The Interwar Years and World War II: In October 1922, Ferdinand became king of Greater Romania, and in 1923 Romania adopted a new constitution providing for a highly centralized state. In 1924 the government banned the Communist Party of Romania, which had been founded in 1921. Romania’s economy boomed during the interwar period, but the international financial crisis that began in 1929 sent world grain prices tumbling and plunged Romania, heavily dependent on grain exports, into an economic tailspin. The downturn provided fertile ground for the formation of the Iron Guard, a political cult consisting of malcontents, unemployed university graduates, thugs, and anti-Semites who called for war against Jews and communists. The Iron Guard soon became the Balkans’ largest fascist party. In September 1940, the Iron Guard, with the support of Germany and renegade military officers led by the premier, General Ion Antonescu, forced Ferdinand’s successor, Carol II, to abdicate in favor of his 19-year-old son, who became Michael V (r. 1940–47). Antonescu soon usurped Michael's authority and brought Romania into the German camp. In June 1941, Romanian forces supported the attack by German armies on the Soviet Union. During the war, Antonescu's regime severely oppressed the Jews in Romania and the conquered territories. Despite rampant anti-Semitism, however, most Romanian Jews survived the war.
In August 1943, King Michael led a coalition of opposition groups that overthrew the Antonescu government. The coup speeded the Soviet Army’s advance westward and ended Romania’s war against the Allies. The Soviet Army occupied Bucharest in August 1944. Romania and the Soviet Union signed an armistice that granted the Romanian regions of Bessarabia (eastern Moldavia) and Bukovina, along the border of Ukraine, to the Soviet Union. In October 1944, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to his Russian counterpart Josef Stalin a list of respective degrees of interest of the Soviet Union and the Western Allies in occupied European countries. Stalin accepted Churchill’s offer of 90 percent Soviet preponderance in Romania, foreshadowing Romania’s geopolitical position in the postwar era.
The Move Toward Socialism: In late 1944, Romania's Communist Party recruitment campaigns began attracting large numbers of workers, intellectuals, and others disillusioned by the breakdown of the country’s democratic experiment. In 1945 the Soviet-backed Romanian Communist Party seized power, and in 1947 King Michael abdicated under pressure from the Communists. In June 1948, the national assembly enacted legislation nationalizing the country’s banks and most of its industrial, mining, transportation, and insurance companies. Within three years, the state controlled 90 percent of Romania’s industry. In January 1949, Romania joined the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the Soviet-dominated economic federation of East European and other communist countries. Forced agricultural collectivization was initiated to feed the growing urban population, and an ambitious program of forced industrial development was launched at the expense of agriculture and consumer-goods production.
The early years of Communist Party rule saw a bitter power struggle. After Stalin’s death in March 1953, Prime Minister Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was able to establish a unified party leadership supported by a loyal internal apparatus. Gheorghiu-Dej forged a “New Course” for Romania’s economy and set Romania on a so-called “independent” course within the Eastern bloc. Although following a Stalinist model of domestic economic development, Gheorghiu-Dej defied Soviet hegemony over the Eastern bloc internationally. He initiated economic and political ties with China and Yugoslavia, both of which had split with the Soviet Union on a number of issues. He also established domestic programs of “de-Russification” and “Romanianization.”
The Rise of Nicolae Ceauşescu: After Gheorghiu-Dej’s death in March 1965, Nicolae Ceauşescu, the party’s first secretary, quickly consolidated power and eliminated rivals. Romania’s divergence from Soviet policies widened under Ceauşescu. Popular acceptance of Ceauşescu’s regime peaked with his defiance of the Soviet Union’s armed response to the “Prague Spring” uprising in Czechoslovakia in 1968; most Romanians believed his actions had averted Soviet re-occupation of their country.
During his early years in power, Ceauşescu presented himself as a reformer and populist champion of the common man. Purge victims began returning home; contacts with the West multiplied; and artists, writers, and scholars found new freedoms. After consolidating power, however, Ceauşescu regressed. The government again disciplined journalists and demanded the allegiance of writers and artists to socialist realism. By the early 1970s, Ceauşescu had adopted the principle of cadre rotation, making the creation of opposition power bases impossible. In 1973 Ceauşescu's wife Elena became a member of the ruling Politburo, and in 1974 voters “elected” Ceauşescu president.
Dynastic Socialism: The Eleventh Communist Party Congress in 1974 signaled the beginning of a regime based on “dynastic socialism.” Ceauşescu placed five members of his immediate family in control of defense, internal affairs, planning, science and technology, youth, and party cadres. Ceauşescu launched monumental, high-risk ventures, including huge steel and petrochemical plants, and he restarted work on the Danube–Black Sea Canal, which had been halted for 23 years. Central economic controls tightened, and imports of foreign technology skyrocketed.
Halfway through the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1976–80), the economy faltered. A devastating earthquake, drought, higher world interest rates, declining foreign demand for Romanian goods, and higher prices for petroleum imports pushed Romania into a balance-of-payments crisis. Ceauşescu imposed a crash program to pay off the foreign debt. The government cut imports, slashed domestic electricity usage, and squeezed its farms, factories, and refineries for exports. Ceauşescu’s debt-reduction policies caused average Romanians terrible hardship.
By the mid-1980s, Romania’s economy was increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for energy imports and raw materials, and as a noncompetitive market for Romanian goods. Despite this dependence, in the late 1980s Ceauşescu was vocal in his criticisms of the liberalization policies of General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union. In 1989 Ceauşescu was reelected for another five-year term as general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party.
The Fall: In 1989, as communist governments fell peacefully throughout the Eastern bloc states from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans, Ceauşescu maintained his iron grip on Romania. It seemed for a time that the regime liberalization taking place elsewhere might bypass Romania entirely. When cracks finally appeared in the regime, however, Ceauşescu’s decline from power was swift and violent. In December 1989, protesters in Timişoara filled the streets after government efforts to remove a pastor from his church. Eventually, the crowd called for the end of Ceauşescu’s regime. On December 17, Ceauşescu ordered the minister of national defense to fire on the crowd in order to end the demonstrations. Gunfire by Securitate (secret police) forces killed and wounded scores of demonstrators.
Foreign radio broadcasts spread word of the Timişoara uprising to the rest of the country, and protests began in Bucharest. At a televised pro-regime rally the next day, Ceauşescu’s address to a large crowd of supporters was interrupted by chants of revolutionary slogans. Dumbfounded, the aged ruler yielded the microphone, and the once unassailable Ceauşescu regime suddenly appeared vulnerable.
After a second unsuccessful attempt to address a crowd and news that the army was joining the protesters, Ceauşescu and his wife fled the capital but were captured several hours later. In the days that followed, confused battles among military and Securitate factions raged in the streets. The media’s grossly exaggerated casualty figures convinced citizens that Romania faced a protracted, bloody civil war. Against this ominous backdrop, a hastily convened military tribunal tried Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu for “crimes against the people,” and their death sentences were carried out on Christmas Day. A jubilant Romania celebrated news of the executions.
Post-Ceauşescu Romania: Political and economic stability has not come easily to Romania since the fall of the Ceauşescu regime. Until the early 2000s, one party, which began as the National Salvation Front (NSF), dominated Romanian politics under a variety of names. In what was essentially a palace coup, Ion Iliescu, a former member of the party elite, seized power after the execution of the Ceauşescus. Iliescu quickly repealed many of Ceauşescu’s most unpopular policies, paving the way for victory by the center-left NSF in the 1990 elections. The NSF faced serious social, political, and economic concerns that it was ill equipped to address effectively. Corruption was rampant, and many feared that Iliescu and his allies lacked a sincere commitment to democracy. Pro-democracy protests in Bucharest in 1990 were suppressed violently by miners from the Jiu Valley, who many believed were directed by Iliescu. In 1991 the miners made a second violent return to Bucharest, this time to protest market reforms advocated by Prime Minister Petre Roman, a rival of Iliescu. The government collapsed, the NSF split into two factions, and elections were held in 1992.
The 1992 elections returned Iliescu and his branch of the NSF (now called the Democratic National Salvation Front, or FDSN) to power. Significant reform did not take place under Iliescu’s leadership. In 1993 the FDSN renamed itself the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PSDR). In 1996 Iliescu lost a presidential runoff to the academician Emil Constantinescu, who led an unstable center-right alliance. Living standards declined in the late 1990s, weakening support for Constantinescu. In the 2000 elections, voters once again put their faith in the well-known Iliescu, who won a runoff with Corneliu Vadim Tudor, leader of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party. After the elections, the PSDR was renamed yet again, this time as the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The PSD then presided over a period of relative stability as living standards rebounded somewhat. However, in the 2004 presidential election Bucharest mayor Traian Basescu, leader of a center-right coalition, unexpectedly defeated the PSD, and a coalition including the Democratic Party and the National Liberal Party formed a government.
In April 2005, Bulgaria and Romania signed an accession treaty with the European Union (EU), calling for admission to that organization in 2007 or 2008. For Romania this would be the second major step in forging ties with Western Europe; in 2004 it achieved membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO). In December 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice signed an agreement for the permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Romania, the first such treaty by the United States with a former Warsaw Pact country. In September 2006, the European Commission, the EU’s administrative and legal arm, recommended the admission of Bulgaria and Romania in January 2007, with the requirement that those countries make substantial reforms to gain permanent status. In late 2006, a change of Romania’s government, a breakup of the four-party coalition elected in 2004, and early elections (2007 instead of 2008) were under discussion for the period following EU accession.

GEOGRAPHY

Location: Romania is located in southeastern Europe.
Ukraine lies to the north and east, Moldova to the northeast,
Hungary to the northwest, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria
to the south, and the Black Sea to the southeast.
Size: Romania’s total area is 237,500 square kilometers,
7,160 square kilometers of which is water.
Land Boundaries: Romania shares land boundaries with the following nations: Bulgaria (608 kilometers), Hungary (443 kilometers), Moldova (450 kilometers), Serbia (476 kilometers), and Ukraine (431 kilometers).
Disputed Territory: Romania and Ukraine continue to negotiate conflicting claims to the Ukrainian-administered Snake Island (Simony Island in Ukrainian, Insula Serpilor in Romanian) offshore from the Danube Delta, as well as their common Black Sea maritime boundary.
Length of Coastline: Romania’s coastline along the Black Sea is 225 kilometers long.
Maritime Claims: Romania claims a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles, an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles, and a continental shelf of 200 meters (or to the depth of exploitation).
Topography: Romania’s topography is almost evenly divided among mountains, hills, and plains. These varied forms spread rather symmetrically from the Carpathian Mountains, which reach elevations of more than 2,500 meters in central Romania, to the Danube Delta in the southeast, which is a few meters above sea level. After running from northwest to southeast from the border of Ukraine, the southern expanse of the Carpathians, known as the Transylvanian Alps, forms a loop and runs from east to west, crossing the Danube in the Iron Gate region. A lesser mountain range, the Bihor Massif, is located in northwestern Romania. Because of the relatively modest elevations of the mountains and the existence of passes, the Carpathians have not posed a serious obstacle to transportation across the country. Within the loop of the Carpathians is the Transylvanian Plateau, the largest tableland in Romania and an important agricultural region. South of the Carpathians, an extensive plain stretches northward from the Danube and occupies most of southeastern Romania.
Principal Rivers: The Danube is Romania’s major waterway. After entering the country in the southwest at Bazias, the Danube travels some 1,000 kilometers through or along Romanian territory, forming the southern frontier with Serbia and Bulgaria. One of Europe’s largest hydroelectric stations is located at the Iron Gate, where the Danube surges through the Carpathian gorges on the Serbian border. Virtually all of the country’s rivers are tributaries of the Danube, either directly or indirectly, and by the time the Danube’s course ends in the Black Sea, these waterways account for nearly 40 percent of the total discharge. The most important of the Danube tributaries in Romania are the Mures, Olt, Prut, Siret, Ialomita, Somes, and Arge. Romania’s rivers flow primarily east, west, and south from the central crown of the Carpathians. They are fed by rainfall and melting snow, which causes considerable fluctuation in volume and occasionally catastrophic flooding.
Climate: Because of its position in the southeastern portion of the European continent, Romania has a climate that is transitional between temperate and continental. In the extreme southeast, Mediterranean influences offer a milder, maritime climate. The average annual temperature is 11° C in the south and 8° C in the north. In Bucharest the temperature ranges from –29° C in January to 29° C in July, with average temperatures of –3° C in January and 23° C in July. Rainfall, although adequate throughout the country, decreases from west to east and from mountains to plains. Some mountainous areas receive more than 1,000 millimeters of precipitation each year.
Natural Resources: Romania possesses modest and declining reserves of petroleum and natural gas in addition to timber, coal, iron ore, and salt, as well as arable land and hydropower resources.
Land Use: According to the Romanian government, arable areas represent 39.5 percent of land; forests, 28 percent; pastures and hayfields, 20.5 percent; vineyards and orchards, 2.3 percent; buildings, roads, and railroads, 4.5 percent; water and ponds, 3.7 percent; and other areas, 1.8 percent.
Environmental Factors: Romania’s past focus on heavy industry has saddled it with a legacy of industrial pollution, and pollution presents a serious threat to Romania’s environment. Under Ceauşescu, Romania’s Environmental Law of 1973 was never fully enforced. When the Law on Environmental Protection finally updated national environmental regulations in 1995, Romania was one of the last countries in Eastern Europe to do so. According to Western observers, toxic air emissions present the most significant environmental hazard in Romania. Industrial waste pollution in waterways is also significant. In January 2000, a major cyanide spill in Romania’s mining region flooded the Danube River with toxic waste; the contamination killed fish and polluted drinking water in Romania, Hungary, Serbia, and Bulgaria before dissipating in the Black Sea. Approximately 18 percent of Romania’s water is too polluted even for industrial use. Economic difficulties and political constraints have prevented widespread reform of heavy industry, especially mining, and kept environmental protections generally weak. However, beginning in 2004 impending membership in the European Union (EU) has stimulated substantial upgrading of environmental monitoring and legislation in order to comply with EU standards by 2007. In 2006 the European Commission listed Romania’s two main remaining issues as increased transparency of environmental decisions and improved waste management. Romania has received extra time to reach full compliance on environmental matters. The agency responsible for environmental protection is the Ministry of Water Resources, Forests, and Environmental Protection, which has an office in each of the 41 counties.
Time Zone: Romania is two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

 SOCIETY

Population: Romania’s population has declined every year since 1990 as a result of falling birthrates, increasing mortality rates, and emigration. In 2006 Romania’s population was estimated at 22.3 million, with an annual growth rate of –0.1 percent. In 2005 some 66 individuals were granted asylum in Romania, and 450 Uzbek refugees received temporary asylum pending resettlement elsewhere. In 2006 the estimated net migration rate was –0.13 per 1,000 population. Estimates of the number of Romanians who have emigrated since 1989 range from 600,000 to 2 million. Population density in Romania in 2006 was 93.9 persons per square kilometer. Slightly more than half of the population lives in urban areas.
Demography: In 2006 some 15.7 percent of the population was less than 15 years of age, and those aged 65 and older accounted for 14.7 percent of the population. In the overall population, there were 0.95 males for every female. The number of births per 1,000 was 10.7, the number of deaths, 11.8. The infant mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 25.5, one of the highest rates in Europe. The maternal mortality rate, 49 per 100,000 live births in 2000, was six times the rates in Hungary and Poland in 2005. In 2006 the fertility rate was 1.37 children born per woman. Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 71.6 years (68.1 years for men, 75.3 years for women), among the lowest averages in Europe.
Ethnic Groups: The majority of the population (89 percent) is ethnic Romanian, with a small minority of Hungarians (7.1 percent). Roma officially account for 2.5 percent of the population, but their actual share is believed to be substantially higher. Nationalities with smaller populations are Croats, Germans, Russians, Serbs, Turks, and Ukrainians.
Languages: Romanian is the official language. Hungarian is commonly used as well, particularly in the western and northwestern areas. English and French are widely spoken as second and third languages, especially among younger Romanians.
Religion: According to the Romanian government, 86. 7 percent of the population was Eastern Orthodox, 4.7 percent Roman Catholic, 3.2 percent Protestant, less than 1 percent Greek Catholic, and less than 1 percent Jewish as of 2003.
Education and Literacy: Although the education system has undergone substantial structural changes in the early 2000s, low funding precipitated a major teachers’ strike in November 2005. The 2006 budget increased government spending on education to 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), and teacher salaries increased by 12 percent in 2006. However, funding remains very low by European standards, and there is a shortage of qualified teachers. Education was one target of the campaign to decentralize state services that President Basescu began in 2006.
Education in Romania is compulsory for the first 10 years of schooling, beginning at age six. In 2003 some 96.5 percent of eligible children attended the primary school grades, and 77 percent attended kindergarten. Following primary school, several types of education are available: general secondary schools, which require an entrance exam and prepare students for college-level studies; specialized secondary schools, which offer agricultural, industrial, and teacher training; art schools; and vocational schools. The average dropout rate following the compulsory years is about 25 percent, but the rate is much higher in poor areas and among the Roma population. In 2004 Romania had about 10,400 primary and secondary schools attended by 3.2 million students and staffed by 216,000 teachers. After substantial increases in the early 2000s, by 2005 Romania’s institutions of higher education had about 650,000 students, one-quarter of whom were in private institutions. In 2003 the literacy rate in Romania was 98.4 percent (99.1 percent male, 97.7 percent female).
Health: Health care is generally poor by European standards, and access is limited in many rural areas. In 2001 health expenditures were equal to 6.5 percent of gross domestic product. In 2005 there were 1.9 physicians and 7.4 hospital beds per 1,000 people. The state-owned health care system was a target of the campaign to decentralize state services that President Basescu began in 2006. The system has been funded by the National Health Care Insurance Fund, to which employers and employees make mandatory contributions. Private health insurance has developed slowly. Because of low public funding, about 36 percent of the population’s health care spending is out-of-pocket. Bribes frequently are paid to gain improved treatment.
The most common causes of death are cardiovascular disease and cancer. Communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, syphilis, and viral hepatitis are more common than elsewhere in Europe. The incidence of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) has been less than 0.1 percent. However, high rates of venereal disease, lack of education about HIV prevention, and increasing intravenous drug use are factors that could increase the rate substantially in the future. The number of pediatric AIDS cases is one of the highest in Europe because of unsafe blood transfusion and inoculation procedures for young children in hospitals and clinics in the last years of the communist era. In 2006 an estimated 7,200 Romanians below age 20 had been infected in this way.
Welfare: In 2005 some 22 percent of Romanians, including about 80 percent of Roma, lived below the poverty line. The northeastern region had the highest poverty rate, Bucharest the lowest. The Romanian social insurance system, which underwent major reform in 2000, is funded by employee/employer contributions and government payments. The system provides a variety of benefits, including old-age pensions, disability benefits, workers’ compensation for injuries sustained on the job, unemployment benefits, and family allowances. The system suffers from a shortage of capital and human resources, as well as poor distribution, especially in rural areas. Workers with sufficient years of contribution can receive pensions at age 57 (women) or 63 (men). In 2015 the minimum age will be 65 for both sexes, and minimum years of contribution will increase. In 2007 supplementary individual social security accounts will be established, with mandatory contributions from workers younger than 35. The child welfare system, a legacy of the Ceauşescu regime, was a chronic problem through the early 2000s. After a failed effort in 2002 to modernize child welfare law to meet European Union standards, a new law substantially improved the system in 2005. The number of children abandoned at hospitals decreased by 50 percent between 2003 and 2005.

ECONOMY

Overview: The pace of Romania’s transition from a centrally planned to a market economy has been slower than in neighboring postcommunist states. Following the 1989 revolution, governments enacted economic reforms sporadically. During the 1990s, macroeconomic imbalances persisted, as did government subsidies for loss-making industries. Fiscal debt and inflation were problems throughout the decade. Although the multinational agencies that financed many of Romania’s economic growth programs exerted pressure to pursue stabilization and restructuring programs, Romania failed to fulfill the terms of any of the standby agreements it had with the International Monetary Fund in the 1990s. The governments since 2001 have exercised significantly more financial discipline. With membership in the European Union (EU) in 2007 as an incentive, measures such as a flat income tax, a revised labor code, a revised capital account policy, and stronger anti-inflationary efforts have solidified many aspects of Romania’s economy. Privatization has been slow and uneven; in 2005 more than 1,000 enterprises still were state-owned. In 2004 the EU’s European Commission declared that Romania has a functioning market economy, although in 2005 the commission still identified significant deficiencies. Although by 2006 Romania had resolved enough deficiencies to receive final approval for EU membership in January 2007, recent economic growth has not yet alleviated Romania’s widespread poverty, and corruption and bureaucracy continue to hinder business activities.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): In the wake of the Ceauşescu regime, which sacrificed overall economic growth in order to eliminate the country’s foreign debt, Romania’s GDP still was increasing slowly in the early 2000s. In 2003 the GDP was still below the 1989 level. A new government economic policy, including significant tax reform and privatization, caused the GDP to increase by 4.5 percent in 2005 to US$72.5 billion. The predicted figure for 2006 was US$77.6 billion (an increase of 7 percent over 2005) or US$3,480 per capita. In 2004 agriculture contributed 10.1 percent of GDP, industry 35 percent, and services, 54.9 percent. The private-sector share was 70 percent.
Government Budget: Although budget deficits have declined since 1999, in most years government expenditures have exceeded revenues. The 2004 budget showed a deficit of US$800 million, based on revenues of US$21.7 billion and expenditures of US$22.5 billion. In 2005, the first year of Romania’s new flat income tax, expenditures were US$31.4 billion and revenues, US$30 million, yielding a deficit of US$1.4 billion. The draft budget for 2007 includes US$48.7 billion in revenues and US$51.4 billion in expenditures, a deficit of US$2.7 billion.
Inflation: For most of the postcommunist period, Romanians endured double- and even triple-digit inflation. Inflation in this period peaked in 1993 at 256 percent. After reaching another alarmingly high rate at 151 percent in 1997, inflation began a steady decline that continued through 2005. From 2001 to 2005, the rate dropped from 34.5 percent to 9 percent. Estimates of the inflation rate for 2006 ranged from 6.1 to 6.4 percent. The official inflation target for 2007 is 4.4 percent. Some outside observers have noted that Romania’s consumer price index fails to accurately reflect the true impact of energy costs, which are rising faster than average.
Agriculture: Romania has rich agricultural lands, with conditions amenable to a variety of crops, and has historically been a major agricultural producer. Since 1989, no other industry has been privatized as extensively as agriculture. By 2004 some 85 percent of arable land and 98 percent of livestock were privately held. Nevertheless, the agriculture sector remains weaker than in other new member states of the European Union. Although in 2004 agriculture accounted for more than 30 percent of total employment and 68 percent of rural employment, it contributed only 10 percent of gross domestic product. After the postcommunist redistribution of 80 percent of arable land to private owners in parcels of limited size, by 2000 only 2 percent of farms were larger than 10 hectares. This fragmentation, a result of the original redistribution policy and the slow pace of subsequent consolidation, has contributed to the under-capitalization and under-mechanization of the sector. Legal, financial, and political restrictions continue to stifle growth. Agricultural production for 2005 was reduced by serious floods during the growing season. In order of volume, in 2004 the principal crops included corn, wheat, potatoes, sunflower seeds, barley, tomatoes, grapes, apples, cabbages, and sugar beets; principal livestock inventories included chickens, sheep, pigs, and cattle.
Forestry: In 2000 Romania had about 6.5 million hectares of forest cover. Timber output remained steady in the early 2000s. In 2004, 15,800 cubic meters of timber products were harvested, of which about 3,000 cubic meters were fuelwood.
Fishing: In 2003 the total fish output in Romania was 19,092 tons, almost equally divided between aquaculture and wild harvest. That figure was a significant increase from the 2002 total of 16,237 tons. The output included mainly several species of carp, sprat, and bream.
Mining and Minerals: The mining sector has declined in the postcommunist era, in part as a result of poor maintenance and a lack of investment, and the industry has a poor environmental record. Romania has modest deposits of minerals, including bauxite, brown coal, copper, gold, iron ore, lead, salt, uranium, and zinc. Reserves of bauxite are estimated at 2.5 million tons, copper at 1.5 million tons, zinc at 1.4 million tons, and lead at 600,000 tons. In 2003 salt production totaled 2.4 million tons, unprocessed iron ore 244,000 tons, brown coal 31,000 tons, zinc 23,500 tons, and lead 18,100 tons.
Industry and Manufacturing: The industry and manufacturing sector has been burdened by a preponderance of old, in some cases obsolete, plants in the metallurgical, heavy engineering, and chemical industries. The communist-era practice of concentrating manufacturing facilities left the country with a number of aging, unwieldy industrial enterprises. Restructuring and the closing of inefficient factories initially weakened the sector, but between 2000 and 2004 such measures yielded a 25 percent overall increase in industrial output. Until the early 2000s, privatization progressed at a slower pace than in other sectors of the economy, but beginning in 2001 the pace accelerated, and increased rates of foreign investment made possible large-scale modernization. Major industrial products include textiles, shoes, tires, cement, crude steel, household consumer items, passenger cars, tractors, wine, and beer. In the early 2000s, the fastest-growing industries have been automobiles and pharmaceuticals, both of which have been supported significantly by foreign direct investment. In recent years, major export industries such as textiles and shoes have been hurt by competition from developing countries. Beginning in the early 2000s, the construction industry, which suffered in the economic decline of the 1990s, has benefited from expanded demand for housing, retail outlets, highway construction, and tourist facilities, and this trend is expected to continue.
Energy: Analysts generally agree that Romania is the only Central European country with significant primary energy reserves (both fossil fuel and hydroelectric resources) offering the potential for several decades of energy self-sufficiency. With 6 percent of the Romanian labor force working in the energy sector, it is the third largest employer in the country, accounting for 5 percent of total industrial output. Since 2000, the Romanian government has accelerated efforts to restructure and privatize the inefficient systems of energy production and distribution inherited from the Ceauşescu regime.
Although Romania has substantial reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil, the output of each has declined substantially in the past decade, and the decline is expected to continue. As of 2003, Romania had proven crude oil reserves of about 900 million barrels. That year production averaged 123,000 barrels per day, compared with 294,000 barrels per day in 1976. About 10 percent of crude oil production is from offshore wells in the Black Sea, where further exploration is planned. The output of natural gas, reserves of which are estimated at 300 billion cubic meters, declined by 70 percent between 1982 and 2004. Most of the natural gas consumed in Romania is imported from Russia via the Progress pipeline. Romania’s 10 oil refineries and its natural gas extraction company are state-owned; the government sold the principal oil company, Petrom, to an Austrian company in 2004. Proven coal reserves in 2005 were about 1.5 billion tons, mostly lignite and subbituminous. Annual coal production peaked in 1989 at 66.4 million tons but since then has declined by more than 50 percent.
Romania has an installed electricity generating capacity of 22.2 gigawatts, making it the largest power producer in southeastern Europe and a net electricity exporter. Operational capacity, however, is only 16 gigawatts. In 2005 Romania produced 60.1 million megawatt-hours of electricity, 72.9 percent of which came from various types of thermoelectric plants, 17 percent from hydroelectric plants, and 10.1 percent from its one nuclear plant. Recent improvements to the energy infrastructure include rehabilitation of 10 thermal power stations (combined capacity 1.36 gigawatts, completed in 2005), upgrading the transmission network, and constructing a second unit at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, which is expected to go online in 2007. Cernavoda’s one operational unit has an installed capacity of 655 megawatts. Work on a third unit of the Cernavoda station was scheduled to begin in 2006 and reach completion in 2011. Current exploitation of hydropower resources is far below capacity. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that Romania may have more than 5,000 locations favorable to hydroelectric power plants. In 2004 Romania’s hydroelectric plants had 6,007 megawatts of installed capacity.
Services: In 2004 the services sector accounted for 54.9 percent of gross domestic product and services employed 37.7 percent of the labor force. Despite rapid development in the postcommunist era, the services sector remains underdeveloped by Western standards. According to a 2001 assessment by the U.S. Department of Commerce, areas in the services sector expected to register the fastest growth include information and communications technology, banking, financial services, insurance, accounting, tourism, and advertising and other media development.
Privatization and restructuring of banking and financial services began after much delay in December 1998 with the sale of the state’s majority stake in the Romanian Development Bank. By 2003 state-owned banks accounted for 40 percent of total net assets, compared with 75 percent in 1998. With the full privatization of the Banca Comerciala Romana, the largest bank in Romania, in 2006 the state’s share fell to 7.5 percent. The number of banks has declined, mostly through mergers and the closing of inefficient banks, to 32 in 2006. Of that number, the 23 that were majority foreign-owned accounted for 66 percent of nongovernment lending and 55 percent of total deposits. Practices at domestic banks continue to favor short-term lending at the expense of investment in new ventures and existing small and medium enterprises. Oversight and regulation of the commercial banking system have improved, reducing vulnerability. Rural areas generally lack banking services, hindering the financing of agricultural enterprises.
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE) resumed trading in 1995, and the RASDAQ, an electronic network for registering over-the-counter share sales, was launched the following year. Growth in the BSE composite index grew (in nominal terms) by 26 percent in 2003, 104 percent in 2004, and 38 percent in 2005. The equity market, whose capitalization was US$19.3 billion at the end of 2005, remained relatively small but has received increased foreign investments. Romania’s non-bank financial services and insurance sectors remained poorly developed in 2006.
Romania has a variety of natural resources that could serve the tourism industry well, including the Black Sea and Danube Delta regions, the Carpathians and Transylvania, and a well-established wine industry. However, growth in tourism has been hindered by poor infrastructure, in particular a shortage of luxury hotels. Foreign investment in tourism has not been brisk despite privatization of the hotel industry. The Romanian government has stepped up efforts to promote foreign tourism, including advertising campaigns and tourism promotion abroad. After declining to US$400 million in 2003, tourism revenue has increased sharply, reaching US$1.3 billion in 2005. A program of diversification and intensified promotion aims to double that figure by 2008.
Retail sales have expanded rapidly beginning in 2004, with the expanded presence of large foreign retail companies in the larger cities. In 2005 retail sales increased by 17.6 percent, although the sector still was dominated by small stores and sales volume trailed those in the Czech Republic and Hungary.
Labor: The collapse of the Ceauşescu regime prompted a series of dramatic changes in both the size and composition of the labor force in Romania, which contains a large stock of skilled individuals. The most significant shifts took place in industry, which employed just 2 million Romanians in 2001 after having employed 4 million in 1989. During the 1990s, employment in the gray market increased significantly, complicating efforts to assess the condition of the labor market. In 2005 the labor force was estimated at 9.3 million workers, or some 42 percent of the population. According to estimates in 2004, nearly 3 million Romanians worked in industry and commerce, 2.8 million in services, and 2.4 million in agriculture. Unemployment peaked in 1999 at 11.8 percent. Registered unemployment for 2005 was 5.9 percent, one of the lowest regional official unemployment rates. Unemployment is distributed unevenly, however; it is lowest in Bucharest and the areas closest to the border with Hungary. Many observers believe that the unemployment rate is kept unrealistically low in part by the significant migration of Romanians abroad in search of employment. As of January 2006, the minimum wage was about US$124 per month after being raised from its 2005 level of US$98 per month.
Foreign Economic Relations: In the early years of the postcommunist era, Romania lost most of its trading partners from the former communist bloc, and it also suffered from international sanctions against traditional export markets such as Iraq and the former Yugoslavia. Romania felt the need to regularize and expand its commercial relations to overcome these losses and the eccentric foreign trade policy of the Ceauşescu regime. In 1993 the Romanian government signed a free-trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association, and in 1995 Romania joined the World Trade Organization. Romania is scheduled to join the European Union (EU) in January 2007, a move that will accelerate the existing concentration of its trade relations in Western Europe. Throughout the early 2000s, the EU was Romania’s largest market for exports and largest provider of imports. Between 2004 and 2005, trade with Germany increased by 14 percent, and an increase of more than 25 percent occurred in 2006. The Romanian government is working to improve trade relations with neighboring Black Sea states and has championed the creation of a free-trade area for manufactured goods with Bulgaria and Turkey.
Imports: In 2004 the total value of imports was US$32.7 billion; in 2005 the total increased to US$38.2 billion. In 2001 goods from Italy, Germany, Russia, and France accounted for about 49 percent of all imports. By 2005 that percentage had decreased to 44.5 percent, although those four countries remained Romania’s largest suppliers, in the same order of value. Principal imports included machinery and equipment, textiles, petroleum and petroleum products, and chemicals and related products.
Exports: In 2004 export values totaled US$23.5 billion, and in 2005 the total increased to US$27.7 billion. More than 40 percent of all exports went to Italy, Germany, and France, but market diversification in the early 2000s reduced the figure from its 2001 level of nearly 50 percent. Romania’s range of exports has remained small because industrial restructuring has been slow. Major exports included textiles, metals, machinery, automobiles, and minerals and fuels.
Trade Balance: Romania has had a persistent trade imbalance, incurring deficits that grew from US$6.4 billion in 2003 to US$9.2 billion in 2005. For the first eight months of 2006, the estimated deficit was US$5.9 billion. Government planning aimed at establishing a trade surplus by 2007 or 2008.
Balance of Payments: Romania ran a current account deficit throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Between 2001 and 2005, the deficit increased from US$1.4 billion to US$8.5 billion. Between 1999 and 2004, however, the overall balance of payments has been positive. In 2004 the overall balance of payments was US$6.2 billion.
External Debt: In 2005 Romania’s external debt was US$14.7 billion, compared with US$15.6 billion in 2002. The bulk of Romania’s external debt was medium- and long-term debt.
Foreign Investment: Although the potential for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Romania is high, the level of FDI has lagged behind other economies in the region. Cumulative FDI between 1989 and 2002 reached US$9 billion, whereas during the same time period in Hungary, cumulative FDI amounted to US$22.5 billion. In 2004 and 2005, FDI increased substantially, reaching US$6.5 billion in the latter year. In the first eight months of 2006, FDI increased by nearly 60 percent compared with the same period of 2005. Some 50 percent of FDI has been targeted to privatization. Although Romania’s industries are heavily dependent on FDI, in recent years the greatest FDI growth has occurred in the non-industrial sectors. In recent years, foreign investment has diversified, although Romania still trails other countries in its region in that respect. Large foreign food retailers from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have expanded their operations rapidly in Romania, and IKEA of Sweden was to begin retailing housewares in 2007. Expansion of the Cernavoda nuclear plant is a joint venture between Atomic Energy of Canada and Ansaldo of Italy. Beginning in the 1990s, major U.S. and European hotel chains have invested heavily in Romania. Renault of France owns the Dacia automotive company, which produces 80 percent of Romania’s vehicle output. Alcatel of France helped the state-owned CFR rail company to build a computerized railroad station in Timoşoara, and communications companies in Canada, France, and Greece supply mobile telephone services.
Currency and Exchange Rate: Romania’s currency is the leu (pl., lei); 100 bani (sing., ban) equal one leu. On July 1, 2005, Romania redenominated its currency; a new (or heavy) leu is valued at 10,000 old lei. At the time of redenomination, the leu was one of the least valued currencies in the world at 29,891 per US$1. As of December 2006, US$1 equaled 2.58 new lei.
Fiscal Year: Calendar year.

 TRANSPORTATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Overview: Development of transportation infrastructure was a low priority under the Ceauşescu regime. As a result, in the early 2000s Romania’s road and rail systems have remained among the least extensive in Europe, and the networks’ state of disrepair continues to hamper commercial connections with the rest of Europe and foreign investment. Plans call for improving and linking the transportation infrastructure with trans-European transport networks. Transport modernization is a high government priority, as well as a key component of European Union (EU) accession negotiations. The cost of upgrading roads between 2004 and 2007 is estimated at US$3.3 billion, part of which will be funded by the EU.
Roads: In 2003 Romania had 60,000 kilometers of paved roads, 228 kilometers of which were rated as expressways. Significant portions of this system are in poor condition, and 46 percent of public roads are located in rural areas. Among projects for the near future are a new highway from Bucharest to Constanţa as part of the Pan-European Corridor IV project and a ring road around Bucharest. Corridor IV would link Dresden with Istanbul and Thessaloniki via Romania. Romania has received significant funding from several European lenders for road infrastructure improvements.
Railroads: Rail is the major form of domestic transportation in Romania; the rail network includes 10,898 kilometers of standard-gauge rail line. However, only 35 percent of this network is electrified, and capital equipment and infrastructure require updating. In 2005 the rail network carried about 500,000 passengers per day and 70 million tons of freight for the year. In 2005 railroad stations with computerized routing systems were operating in four major cities. A modernized rail connection between Bucharest and Constanţa will make possible train speeds of up to 160 kilometers per hour.
Ports: Romania has ports on the Black Sea and along the Danube River; most are in need of repair and modernization. Constanţa, Romania’s principal oil port, covers nearly 4,000 hectares on the Black Sea and has an annual handling capacity of 115 million tons. North of Constanţa, a satellite port, Midia, handles 200,000 tons of cargo annually. Danube River ports are vital to Romania because the river is its main commercial link with Central Europe. The main port along the Danube River is Galaţi, which handles approximately 6.7 million tons of cargo annually. In descending order of annual cargo volume, other ports along the Danube are Tulcea, Giurgiu, Orşova, Medgidia, Zimnicea, Turnu Mǎgurele, Olteniţa, and Sulina.
Inland Waterways: The Danube is by far Romania's most important river for transportation. The Danube is an important route for domestic shipping as well as international trade. It is navigable for river vessels along its entire Romanian course and for seagoing ships as far as the port of Braila, about 150 kilometers inland. Problems with reliance on the Danube for inland transportation are its remoteness from most major industrial centers and marshy banks and flooding that impede navigation in some areas. The Danube–Black Sea Canal provides an east-west shortcut from Constanţa to the meandering lower Danube. Plans call for extensive new commercial development along the canal.
Civil Aviation and Airports: In 2006 Romania had 61 airports, 25 of which had permanently surfaced runways. Of these, seven are classified as international. Bucharest International Airport at Otopeni is the largest in the country, carrying some 3 million passengers and 25,000 tons of cargo per year. The other airports served by international flights are Cluj-Napoca, Constanţa, Targu-Mures, Sibiu, Arad, Oradea, and Timişoara. The government’s master plan for airport development through the year 2015 calls for modernization of all major airports, including runway lengthening and widening, improved safety, and possible privatization. Early targets of that program have been the facilities at Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest. Efforts to privatize the national airline, Tarom Romanian Airlines, have suffered frequent postponements. Tarom’s small fleet now includes mainly new Western aircraft. Plans called for passenger volume to increase from 1.45 million in 2006 to 1.8 million in 2008. Membership in the European Union will substantially increase Tarom’s competition.
Pipelines: Two state-owned companies control Romania’s network of approximately 2,400 kilometers of petroleum pipelines. The first, Petrotrans, carries crude oil from the Black Sea port of Constanţa to refineries inland; and the second, owned by Conpet, carries crude oil from oil fields in the south and east to refineries in Cǐmpina, Dǎrmǎneşti, Oneşti, and Ploieşti. In addition, Romania has approximately 3,500 kilometers of natural gas pipelines that bring gas into Romania from Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia (via Ukraine). The proposed Southeast European Pipeline, one Romanian segment of which already exists, would bring oil from the Black Sea across Romania to Italy’s Adriatic port of Trieste. Negotiations were ongoing in late 2006. The Nabucco Pipeline would connect West European natural gas users with the transcaspian line, crossing Romania and several other countries to reach Germany. Final negotiations were held in 2006, and construction could be completed in 2010.
Telecommunications: After deregulation, expansion, and modernization over the past 10 years, Romania’s telecommunications sector has grown rapidly since 2003, particularly in information technology (IT). In 2006 Romania had the highest per capita ratio of IT specialists in Europe. The market for mobile phone services in Romania is one of the most advanced in the Balkans, with mobile service more widely used than fixed-line. Of the four mobile service providers, three are foreign companies. In 2006 Romania had 14.9 million mobile service subscribers (compared with 10.2 million in 2004); the number of landlines remained stable at about 4.5 million. Internet penetration is weak by European standards, but access has increased rapidly since the early 2000s. By 2005 Romania had an estimated 4.9 million Internet users (compared with 158,000 in 1998) and 56,200 Internet hosts. Online journalism increased significantly in 2005, albeit from a modest starting point.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Overview: Romania is a republic with a directly elected president and a bicameral legislature. In the postcommunist era, Romania generally has had a democratic system of government, although until 2004 governance was dominated by a single figure, Ion Iliescu (who has been elected president three times), and parties associated with him. The European Union (EU) has identified reform of Romania’s public administration as a requirement for membership. After the Ceauşescu regime fell in 1989, a new constitution was ratified in 1991. It was last modified by referendum in October 2003.
Executive Branch: The executive branch is composed of the president (head of state), the prime minister (head of government), and the Council of Ministers (cabinet). The president is elected by popular vote and cannot serve more than two five-year terms (extended by a constitutional referendum from four years in 2003). The president serves as supreme commander of the armed forces, chairs the Supreme Defense Council, and nominates the prime minister. The prime minister, who was Calin Popescu-Tariceanu in 2006, appoints the government (Council of Ministers), which must be confirmed by a vote of confidence from parliament. In 2006 the government included 15 ministries, three deputy prime ministers, and the head of the National Bank of Romania; some reorganization was expected following admission to the European Union (EU) in 2007.
Legislature: The legislative branch, a two-chamber parliament, is made up of the Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputatilor, 332 seats) and the Senate (Senat, 137 seats); all seats are filled by popular vote. Deputies and senators serve four-year terms. As at the lower levels of government, all seats in the national parliament are allocated in proportion to the votes gained by the parties. The legislature has been weakened by the availability of an “emergency ordinance” strategy that enables the executive branch to pass legislation without parliamentary approval. However, in recent years European Union law has been the model for a substantial portion of Romania’s new legislation.
The parliamentary elections of 2004 gave the Social Democratic Party (SDP) a plurality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies, but a coalition of three parties, the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania (HDUR), and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), formed a government based on their combined numbers. Between 2004 and late 2006, some deputies changed party allegiance, giving the DA (itself an alliance of the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Party) an independent plurality. As of October 2006, the party alignment of the Chamber of Deputies was as follows: DA, 118; SDP, 105; the Greater Romania Party (GRP), 31; HDUR, 22; Conservative Party (formerly the PUR), 18; other parties, 18; and independents, 19. The distribution in the Senate was as follows: DA, 50; SDP, 43; GRP, 18; Conservatives, 11; HDUR, 10; and independents, 11. The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Bogdan Olteanu, was elected in March 2006 when the previous president, former prime minister Adrian Năstase, was forced to resign because of alleged corruption.
Judiciary: The judicial branch is divided into a Constitutional Court, a lower court system with municipal and county courts, a court of appeals, and a High Court of Cassation and Justice. The role of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, as defined by the constitution, is to ensure a unitary and consistent interpretation and enforcement of the law by all lower courts. The nine-member Constitutional Court addresses the constitutionality of challenged laws and decrees. The members serve nonconcurrent nine-year terms. The two houses of parliament and the president appoint three judges each to the Constitutional Court. Judges to the High Court of Cassation and Justice serve six-year terms and may serve multiple terms; like all other judges in the lower court system, they are appointed by the president on the recommendation of the 19-member Superior Council of Magistrates. The constitution provides for an independent judiciary; judges appointed by the president cannot be removed prior to the end of their terms.
Administrative Divisions: Romania is divided into 41 counties (judete; sing., judet). Below the county level are three categories of population centers: 2,800 communes, having fewer than 5,000 inhabitants; 280 towns, having 5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants; and 86 municipalities, having more than 20,000 inhabitants.
Provincial and Local Government: Each of Romania’s 41 counties is governed by a county council, whose members are elected by party; municipalities, towns, and communes are administered by mayors (elected individually) and local councils (elected by party). The county council coordinates the actions of all commune and town councils within a given county. Each county and Bucharest has a prefect appointed by the central government, who is charged with representing the central government at the local level. The prefect can block the actions of a local authority under certain conditions, such as violations of the law or the constitution. Such contested matters are then referred to an administrative court for arbitration. Reform proposals by President Traian Basescu in 2006 would give municipalities and county councils substantially greater responsibility for education, health care, and police services now provided by the central government. The inefficient county administrative system may be replaced by a regional system after 2007, but this controversial reform will await Romania’s entry into the European Union.
Judicial and Legal System: The Romanian legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code. The law does not provide for jury trials; therefore, judges alone decide the outcome of trials. The law stipulates the right to counsel and presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The system has three levels below the High Court of Cassation and Justice: a lower court, an intermediate court, and an appellate court. Courts at each level have a prosecutor’s office. In the early 2000s, the Romanian legal system struggled to cope with a steadily increasing volume of court cases, particularly commercial litigation, and a shortage of judges. In 2004 and 2005, reports by the European Commission criticized the Romanian judiciary for lack of political independence and training and for unfamiliarity with the law of the European Union (EU). A judicial reform law passed in 2005 aimed at increasing the independence and professionalism of judges and prosecutors. Minister of Justice Monica Macovei, a nonpolitical appointee, has received credit for accelerating the judicial reform process, a major factor in the EU’s final approval of Romania’s membership in 2006. The 2006 state budget increased funding of the judicial branch by 12 percent.
Electoral System: Representatives to the two houses of parliament are chosen by direct, popular vote on a proportional representation basis for four-year terms. Parliamentary elections last were held on November 28, 2004, when 58 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. The organization and conduct of national elections are the responsibility of the Central Election Bureau, which has branch offices in each county. The Permanent Electoral Authority, created in 2006, monitors the funding of political parties. The next parliamentary elections are scheduled for November 28, 2008.
The president is elected by direct popular vote. The most recent presidential election, held on November 28, 2004, resulted in a runoff between the top two candidates on December 12, 2004. In that election, Traian Basescu of the Democratic Party defeated incumbent prime minister Adrian Năstase of the Social Democratic Party with 51.2 percent of the vote. The next presidential election will be held on November 28, 2009, with a runoff on December 12, 2009, if necessary.
Politics and Political Parties: As of 2006, political parties represented in parliament include the National Liberal Party (NLP) and the Democratic Party (DP), which together formed the Justice and Truth Alliance (DA); the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania (HDUR); the Conservative Party; the Social Democratic Party (SDP); and the ultranationalist Greater Romania Party. In 2006 the main parties of the governing coalition, the center-right NLP and the center-left DP, were increasingly hostile and not expected to remain partners in the Justice and Truth Alliance for the next election (in 2007 or 2008). The SDP, which had suffered serious scandals, was not expected to be a serious factor, and the NLP was weakened by factionalism. A new coalition was expected to head the next government. Parties failing to gain seats in parliament in the 2004 elections include the National Peasant and Christian-Democrat Party (PNTCD), the Popular Action Party (AP), the New Generation Party (PNG), the Union for Romania’s Reconstruction (URR), and the Democrat Force (FD).
Mass Media: The fall of the Ceauşescu regime brought extensive changes in Romanian media markets. In 2006 the mass media market remained a balance between state-owned and independent outlets. In the 2004 presidential election, international monitors criticized the broadcast media for favoritism but found the print media basi