Romania seeks Personal Freedom

Fire of Liberty

It seems that the Eastern European nations won't take the flak from the French like the Spanish and the Dutch have. Just see the current dust-up between Romania and France, which can be found in this article in The Financial Times:

Members of Romania's centre-right government, in a series of interviews with Brussels-based journalists, made it clear they saw themselves in the Atlanticist, free-trade bloc which Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, called New Europe.

“Traditionally we have worked together with London and Washington,” Mr Basescu said, most recently by sending troops to Iraq, and he resented French criticisms of that policy.

He said Jacques Chirac, French president, caused offence in 2003 when he told EU candidate countries to “shut up” over Iraq, and that Michel Barnier, French foreign minister, recently compounded the insult when he said Mr Basescu did not have “a European reflex”.

“Romania is a country which has respect for itself,” he said. “France is one our main supporters, but at the same time we do not like these kind of declarations.”

Asked which economic model he would pursue, he said it would be a “more liberalised” system. “We want to have a state with minimal involvement in the economy,” he said.

As long as large nations like France and Germany think they can boss around small nations like Poland and Romania, they will never be able to form a United States of Europe. These small nations endured countless years of the Soviets bossing them around during the Cold War and don't feel like giving over such freedoms again to the likes of France. It amazing how a nation and its people who have been under the jack-boot of tyranny flock towards freedom and the US and away from bossy types like Chirac. I especially love the line about an economy with limited government activity. I have a feeling they'd reject the EU Constitution if given a chance. They understand the freedom factor, unlike the elites who push the EU Constitution.