The European Union

I. The purpose of the statistical research

Today the use of statistics has broadened far beyond its origins as a service to a state or government. Individuals and organizations use statistics to understand data and make informed decisions throughout the natural and social sciences, medicine, business, and other areas.

The purpose of this statistical research is to see the impression of the students living in Romania regarding the integration in the European Union (EU). On 1st January 2007 Romania made a big step, succeeded in entering the European Union. This integration had an important impact on the economical, social and educational life. I think that a small number of persons are aware of the importance of this change and this is because not all of us know what the EU really means. From the educational point of view this integration can make an important number of changes, which are related in this research paper. It is hoped that by this study it will be clear the things that have to be done in order for Romania to become a member of this family not only in writing but also in the real sense of the word.

The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of 27 democratic member states in Europe and some of their respective overseas territories. The European Union was established under that name in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty.

The European Union is the largest political and economic entity on the European continent, with around 500 million people and an estimated GDP of US$13.4 trillion. The Union has a single market consisting of a customs union, a single currency called the Euro — adopted by 13 member states, a Common Agricultural Policy, a common trade policy, and a Common Fisheries Policy.

The most important of EU institutions include the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Court of Justice, the European Council, the European Central Bank and the European Parliament, elected by EU citizens every five years.

The Accession of Romania to the European Union took place on January 1, 2007. This date was set at the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003 and confirmed in Brussels on June 18, 2004.

Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989, European Union (EU) membership has been the main goal of every Romanian Government and practically every political party in Romania. Signed its Europe Agreement in 1993 and submitted its official application for membership in the EU in 1995, the third of the post-Cold War Eastern European countries to do so after Hungary and Poland. Along with its official EU application, Romania submitted the “Snagov Declaration”, signed by all fourteen major political parties declaring their full support for EU membership.

Public opinion polls in Romania indicate 70% of the population is in favour of accession to the European Union. However, the rest of the EU's population has a less positive view of Romania's accession, with an approval rate of only 45% (Euro barometer poll).

These are a few words about the European Union but what do the young Romanians know about the integration? Are they aware of the implications? Or at least do they know something about our trait in entering this “big family”. These are a few of the objectives of this research. From the management point of view we also try to see the impact of the EU on the wages, on the life quality, on the prices. A very important point is the job market. Nowadays there are a lot of young persons who have finished a University but unfortunately do not have a place to work in. This is a major problem in Romania and the research is ment to analyze the impression of students concerning these facts. Another important economical problem for Romania is that a large number of students after graduating prefer working abroad. This is a big disadvantage for the economy in our country because Romania is well known for the high level of education thing that demonstrates that the students learning in Romania are highly prepared.

Another aspect pointed by this research is that an impressive number of teenagers in Romania have visited countries from the EU. The goal of students is to work abroad because they believe they have more opportunities, but with our integration will their opinion change? An important issue once entering the European Union is the change of the national currency with the European Euro. The amazing thing is that if one goes from a country to another country with money from his country he will loose, after going from one part of Europe to another 45% of the total amount he had at the beginning.

Romania has made further progress with macroeconomic stabilization and economic reform. Its current reform path should enable it to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. The economic safeguard can be invoked to address serious economic difficulties in the current or new Member States after accession.

The internal market safeguard can be invoked when a new Member State causes, or risks causing, a serious breach of the functioning of the internal market

The May 2006 Report reconfirmed it is a functioning market economy and concluded that more appropriate fiscal, monetary and wage policies had been adopted. Since that report, there has been progress in the following areas: The general government budget exhibited a surplus of 1.5% of GDP for the first six months of 2006. The disinflation process continued. The central bank tightened minimum reserve requirements and moderately increased the policy interest rate in view of inflationary pressures and risks.

Real wage growth was largely covered by productivity growth. Budgeted expenditures were increased by nearly 3.5% of GDP, of which 0.4% of GDP is for higher public wages. This pro-cyclical policy deviates from the medium-term fiscal policy earlier presented by Romania. It creates a higher risk of exceeding the 3% of GDP reference value for the budget deficit in the future.

Inflation developments give little assurance that the target for 2006 will be met. The looser fiscal policy and surging credit growth worsen prospects for reaching next year's inflation target. Romania has made good progress through adoption by the Parliament of legislation aiming at transposing the acquis on the citizens' rights regarding Union's citizens and their family members to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States and through amendment of legislation in order to ensure that non-Romanian EU nationals receive the same treatment as the Romanian nationals on access to education and education fees.

As regards the Community programmes it has been decided to delegate the

management of the future Youth in action programme to a joint National Agency for

Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action programmes. This should be followed by

appropriate action to ensure that the merging takes place in good conditions. A tripartite

protocol is envisaged between the Ministry of Education and Research, the National

Youth Authority and the National Agency to ensure coordination and monitoring, and

guarantee the transparent and correct use of funds.

Although representativity of the Economic and Social Council has been improved

through an increase of the number of its members, efforts need to continue in view of

improving social dialogue in general, particularly in order to promote the weak bipartite

dialogue, clarify representativity criteria and solve the outstanding issues of

fragmentation and insufficient capacity of social partner organizations. Further efforts are also necessary to improve the health status of the population and access to health and health care, especially at regional level and among poorer socio-economic groups and minorities.

The international Knowledge Capital can be seen in the context of two major changes which are fundamentally reshaping our society, economy and the institutions and