Romania - Articoli

Romania: Ciugud, European funds make a difference

06/02/2022 -  Mihaela Iordache

Ciugud, in Transylvania, is the Romanian municipality with the most investments per capita in European funds. Let's discover this phenomenon, in contrast to national data


EU cohesion: the great erasure of gender equality

11/01/2022 -  Gentiola Madhi

The pandemic has accentuated the gender inequalities existing in the EU member states. Things were never great, but an analysis of the last financial period 2014-2020 of cohesion policies highlights how little has been done in this field


Romania: 25,000 deaths from pollution per year

23/11/2021 -  Mihaela Iordache

For years the media have denounced that Romania is becoming the landfill of Europe. Yet, the institutions do not intervene, and meanwhile the European Environment Agency reports that the country ranks first in Europe for deaths caused by pollution


Europe: Gigabits for some, but not for others

25/10/2021 -  Federico Caruso

The cost of a good internet connection varies widely within the European Union, with countries around the Adriatic paying the most. Meanwhile, Romania, with a world-class network and competitive prices, is a case apart


Romania: school starts in presence, with the usual chronic problems

16/09/2021 -  Mihaela Iordache

Last Monday, three million students started school in presence despite the fourth wave of Covid-19. In rural areas, 40% of institutions has no sewers


Bucharest still has an AIDS problem

17/11/2020 -  Lorenzo Ferrari

Contrary to the trend across Europe, the Romanian capital has seen a drastic increase in AIDS cases in the last decade. The crisis is fueled by the use of synthetic drugs and lack of harm reduction services


Administrative elections in Romania: Bucharest and beyond

23/09/2020 -  Francesco Magno

On 27 September the administrative elections will take place in Romania. All eyes are on Bucharest and the uncertain outcome between outgoing mayor Gabriela Firea, PSD, and Nicușor Dan from PNL. Yet, indications on the country's political future will also come from the peripheries


Timber mafia and deforestation in Romania

06/04/2020 -  Christoph Lehermayr - Sebastian Reinhart - Johannes Kaiser

Virgin forests in Central-Eastern Europe are the last remaining ones on the continent, yet they are being mercilessly torn down. Part of this multi-billion euro industry is a mafia-like system; Austrian timber companies are right at the heart of it


Datajournalism, my wife, and the Romanian presidential elections

13/12/2019 -  Giorgio Comai

Take a man passionate of datajournalism and Eastern Europe and make him drive the wife to a polling station, you'll end up with a very special analysis on the recent Romanian presidential elections. The making of


Romania’s 2019 presidential elections: the diaspora at the ballot box

26/11/2019 -  Giorgio Comai

At the latest Romanian presidential elections, almost one million Romanians voted from abroad, largely by casting their ballots in more than 800 polling stations open from Friday through Sunday. A visual exploration of the data


Presidential elections in Romania: wet powders

08/11/2019 -  Francesco Magno

Unlike in the past, the presidential campaign for November 10th is particularly subdued. Outgoing president Klaus Iohannis, as the favourite, will probably take the most advantage from this state of affairs. An analysis


Free trade as a scapesheep

28/03/2019 -  Valentina Vivona

Romania has emerged as one of the targets of dairy farmers' protests in Sardinia. But the figures show that Romanian exports are not to blame for the sheep milk crisis


The Romanian “slaves” behind the Sicilian tomatoes

15/05/2018 -  Iulia Badea Guéritée

Hundreds of migrant women moved from Romania to Sicily in order to work, but they are now reduced to a sort of contemporary slaves. The issue has been brought to the European Parliament, where many politicians are urging the EU to intervene


Sardinia: shepherds of Romania

19/07/2018 -  Francesca Rolandi

They mostly come from the Romanian region of Moldova, and since the early 2000s they have migrated to Sardinia, where they are employed in the agro-pastoral sector. A phenomenon analysed by anthropologist Sergio Contu


Who else is watching Romanian films?

17/04/2018 -  Giorgio Comai

Romanian New Wave keeps receiving international accolades at film festivals across Europe, yet it attracts relatively little public in its home country. A data-driven analysis


Judicial reforms trouble the EU

25/02/2018 -  Mihaela Iordache

Both the European Commission and European Parliament have expressed a certain apprehension towards judicial reforms in Bucharest. Among the options on the table is making European funds conditional on the respect of rule of law


Romania: whistleblowers need more than just a law

01/12/2017 -  Stela Giurgeanu

Romania has a law protecting whistleblowers since 2004. But how many Romanian citizens have benefited from it? What is the real impact of a "law without society"? The analysis of Dilema Veche


Romania: let the press reach readers!

10/10/2017 -  Sever Voinescu

Starting from Bucharest newsstands, the closing down of distribution channels of newspapers and magazines represents one of the main threats agains press freedom in Romania. A comment


Why were the East Germans taking the Romania route to West Germany?

25/07/2017 -  Marina Constantinoiu Istvan Deak

At the beginning of the '60s, one of the missions the STASI officers had was to keep tabs on the East Germany citizens who spent an extended period of time in Romania


Romania: mainstream TV networks and their owners

02/05/2017 -  Stela Giurgeanu

Romanian television channels and the owners behind them: the cases of "Antena 1" and "Realitatea TV". A report on Romania, media ownership, and freedom of the press


Cold War: Peter Mibus, border jumper for love

20/04/2017 -  Marina ConstantinoiuIstvan Deak

After 46 years, Peter Mibus returned to Romania to retrace, along with his two daughters, the escape route he undertook with his beloved Uschi to realize their dream of love


Romania: Less hate, more speech

22/03/2017 -  Francesco Martino

The project "Less hate, more speech" aims at stimulating more civilized discussion with less aggressive speech on the Romanian online media, as one of the authors explains


Romania and access to information: a law that works

06/03/2017 -  Stela Giurgeanu

In Romania, the law on access to information is a substantially effective tool in support of quality journalism


The defector who took the Romanian State to court

02/01/2017 -  Marina ConstantinoiuIstvan Deak

Considered as dangerous as criminals by the Romanian regime, defectors were long prosecuted and criminalized. One of them now seeks justice for all Romanian defectors


"We are not audience hunters": Romanian House of Journalists

11/11/2016 -  Stela Giurgeanu

“We are not audience hunters” explains Vlad Ursulean, founder of the "House of Journalist". A project meant to revitalize journalism in Romania


Romania: public broadcaster threatened by populism

31/10/2016 -  Marina Constantinoiu

A few weeks before the elections, the Romanian Parliament abolished the radio-television fee posing the public broadcaster under direct financing from the state budget


Fleeing Romanians: The reenactment of an escape route

19/10/2016 -  Marina ConstantinoiuIstvan Deak

As conjurers, Romanians defectors fled the country and the regime hidden in car-trunks, vans, trains ceilings and even airplanes


Slow Food Romania: the Saxons and the Bazna pig

20/09/2016 -  Francesco Martino Bazna

The Bazna pig was born and bred in the late 19th-century Transylvania. Today, after the Saxon community that had selected it emigrated, the pig is likely to disappear as well


Fleeing Romanians: The Story of Those Who Made It Over the Border

14/09/2016 -  Marina ConstantinoiuIstvan Deak

Twenty-seven years ago, Western Europe welcomed European brethren escaping from Eastern European regimes, relegated to living in oppressive communist regimes


Fleeing Romanians: Who Clipped Their Wings in Mid Flight?

26/08/2016 -  Marina ConstantinoiuIstvan Deak

Romanian “border jumpers” tried to flee the Communist regime, often paying with their lives. After 26 years, this issue remains a black hole in the history of the country