Romania has Europe's last rural civilisation

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration Vasile Dincu on Monday said Romania has to protect its rural civilization because it is Europe's last of its kind and for that a national strategy is needed. "We have Europe's last rural civilisation and we should protect it. Europe feels it and tries to do so with us, but we do not accept it, it is as if we were not hearing. (...) In Romania, there are rather foreigners who warn us that our villages are dying, that a civilisation is dying. (...) It is a matter of culture that eludes us, a cultural dimension that eludes us, namely of self-organising and self-developing. (...) I believe that first of all we have to care about own country. That is the most important thing and it is not sloganeering," Dincu told a debate on the integrated development of Romania's countryside organised by the Representation of the European Commission in Romania. He added that saving the rural civilisation of Romania is first of all incumbent on Romanians because there is no European experience in the area. "We need a new strategy that should be national because global strategies are hard to implement in Romania. Since we are Europe's last rural civilisation, it is clear that there is no European model for it. (...) We are made aware by these debate platforms that everybody uses to tries and wake us up to do it. The European programmes of this year and the next financial year are generally based on making the community conceive its own development, and that is a very good thing that Europe puts at our disposal but we do not know how to use," added Dincu. He also mentioned the effects of accession to the European Union on Romania's countryside, pointing to the absence of efficiency in the national legislation when it comes to protect the countryside. "Let us be very candid and say accession to the European Union delivered a mortal blow to the Romanian peasants because Europe's industrial and agricultural complex came over us like Soviet tanks. We, who return home [in the countryside] on holidays know that very well. Laws have been issued concerning the Romanian products out of the obligation to have local products in supermarkets, but those laws are not observed; we have wonderful control bodies but control is disregarded," the minister said. Dincu also mentioned the people in the countryside, saying that they do not understand technical jargon, they need education and training programmes. "We have to help people. They do not know the language of Brussels or the technocratic jargon that we at the Government can use. People do not understand such jargons; they need education, training programmes and entrepreneurs from outside to set them moving. They have got used to politicians coming to them to canvass for votes, to do some small gestures, foot bridges, churches and similar things. So, first of all they have lost hope, and that is why a strategy to save the civilisation is needed," said Dincu. Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Achim Irimescu also said that establishing a strategy for the countryside is the main challenge, but very many funds could lead us to improved efficiency and performance at a European level but also to the disappearance of villages as we dream of or imagine."I think challenge number one is to establish a strategy (...), although I do not think that is our strong suit. We have established so many strategies since 1990 and none was designed to provide what we really wish for. We will write a new strategy this time as well. Hopefully this would really be a countryside strategy. I say once again that many funds could lead us to improved efficiency and performance at a European level but it also gets us further way from the village we dream of or imagine," Irimescu told a conference on Monday on integrated development of Romania's countryside. He said European officials argue there is no agritourism without infrastructure, but infrastructure means "4x4 cars, tractors, the disappearance of horse-drawn sledges and little by little the disappearance of biodiversity." "I was mentioning a very easy example to officials in Brussels: go to Romania one summer evening in your car and see how many insects will get on the windshield then go West to see what has happened with modernism. It is true that each wants a better life, outdoor toilets, but all this will surely get us farther away from the village we still preserve," said Irimescu. He added that a type of conserved Romanian village can be thought about, but that would beg the question whether or not the young people stay in the countryside. On the other hand, he said many buildings have been built on European funds that are kept under lock, which beg the question if investment was properly conducted.