EURACTIV launches Romanian version of EU policy portal

EURACTIV’s Romanian language policy portal partner,
EURACTIV.ro, has been officially launched in Bucharest.
Ambassador Jonathan Scheele, head of the Commission’s
Delegation in Romania, was among the special guests.

EURACTIV.ro

, the Romanian partner portal in EURACTIV’s
CrossLingual network of EU policy portals, held an
official launch event in Bucharest on 9 November.
Published in co-operation with Actori Europeni,
EURACTIV.ro has been online since May 2004, covering in
Romanian the issues with EU policy relevance that are key
to the country’s scheduled accession to the Union in
2007.

The special guests of the conference included
Ambassador Jonathan Scheele, the head of the
Commission’s Delegation in Romania, as well as other
representatives from the CrossLingual network, from
civil society, from business and the media.

“Communication is a problem here in
Romania,” said Ambassador
Scheele. “Consensus-based reform in a democracy
only works if people are well-informed. And the
information sources are key to the communication. […]
When we get down to the accession and the implications of
the accession for Romania, for far too long the
Delegation was almost one of the few sources of what we
hope was objective information. This was a sort of
semi-monopoly we weren’t really seeking.”

In Scheele’s opinion, ”accession will be a
success when people understand what its implications are
and accept it based on true rather than false
expectations. That’s why I’m very happy to be
here today and help with the launch of  EURACTIV
Romania, because it is one of the better sources of
information”.

euractiv.com’s editor-in-chief, Willy De Backer,
told the participants that the Romanian portal aims to
“play an essential role in the birth of a strong
civil society” in the country. “By providing a
platform for debate, EURACTIV.ro can open up the
discussions on the future of Romania in the EU from the
political elites to the citizens,” he said.

EURACTIV Romania is sponsored by: Microsoft
Romania, ACPR, Allianz – Tiriac Insurance and the
Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania. Its
partners include the European Institute of Romania and
Concept Foundation.

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