Romania is a republic in South East Europe. Romania is situated in the northern part of the Balkan peninsula and its territory is marked by the Carpathian Mountains, the Danube and the Black Sea. Its neighbours are Moldova to the east, Ukraine to the north, Hungary and Serbia-Montenegro to the west and Bulgaria to the south. It borders on: Bulgaria 608 km, Hungary 443 km, Moldova 450 km, Serbia and Montenegro 476 km, Ukraine (north) 362 km, and Ukraine (east) 169 km. Its has 225 km of coastline. Romania has 41 counties (judet): Alba, Arad, Arges, Bacau, Bihor, Bistrita-Nasaud, Botosani, Braila, Brasov, Buzau, Calarasi, Caras-Severin, Cluj, Constanta, Covasna, Dimbovita, Dolj, Galati, Gorj, Giurgiu, Harghita, Hunedoara, Ialomita, Iasi, Ilfov, Maramures, Mehedinti, Mures, Neamt, Olt, Prahova, Salaj, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava, Teleorman, Timis, Tulcea, Vaslui, Vilcea, and Vrancea. Bucharest has the status of city-municipality (municipiu).  In the 1st century BC, as the Roman empire was expanding and Roman provinces were being created in Pannonia, Dalmatia, Moesia and Thracia, 1,500 km of the Danube became the border (Limes) between the Roman Empire and the Dacian world. Dacia was at the peak of its power under King Decebal (87-106 AD). After the first confrontation during the reign of Domitian (87-89), and after two wars (101-102 and 105-106) the Roman empire, at the peak of its power under Emperor Trajan (98-117), beat Decebal and turned most of his kingdom into the Roman province Dacia. People and language were Romanised. Four centuries later, the Romanian territory of today faced waves of migrating peoples - the Getae, the Tartars, the Huns, the Gepidae, the Avars, the Slavs, the Petchenegs, and the Cumanians all crossed the territory. The Romanians belonged to the Orthodox religion and adopted Old Church Slavic as a church language. The Hungarians succeeded in gaining control of Transylvania and making it part of the Hungarian kingdom the 10-13th centuries, though it was an autonomous voivodate until the beginning of the 16th century. Colonisation of Szecklers and Germans (Saxons) took place in the 12th century in border areas. The voivodes of Wallachia Mircea the Old (1386-1418) and Vlad the Impeller (1456-1462 – known as Dracula in legends), along with Stephen the Great and Holy (1457-1504), the voivode of Moldavia and Iancu of Hunedoara, and the voivode of Transylvania (1441-1456) fought heavy defence battles against the Ottoman Turks. Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia were forced to recognise the Ottoman Empire. The end of the 16th century was dominated by the personality of Michael the Brave, voivode of Wallachia, who joined the Christian League as part of an anti-Ottoman coalition and succeeded, following heavy battles (Calugareni, Giurgiu), to actually regain the independence of his country. In 1599-1600 he united for the first time in history all the territories, proclaiming himself "prince of Wallachia, Transylvania and the whole of Moldavia." Michael the Brave was assassinated in 1601. The Ottoman Empire, in an attempt to defend its old position, introduced in Moldavia (1711) and Wallachia (1716) the "Phanariot regime," (until 1821), Austria annexed Oltenia (1718-1793) and Northern Moldavia, which they called Bukovina (1775-1918). The Danube principalities became a European issue at the Paris Congress in 1856. The principalities Wallachia (Valachia) and Moldavia were under the Ottoman Empire, but were placed under the guarantee of the seven states that signed the Paris Peace Treaty. According to these decisions, local assemblies were convened to decide on the future organisation of the two principalities.  In 1857 the " assemblies" convened in Bucharest and Iasi under provisions of the Paris Congress. These assemblies unanimously decided to unite the two principalities into one single state. In 1859 Romanians in Moldavia and in Valachia elected Alexandru Ioan Cuza as their prince, achieving de facto the union of the two principalities. The state took the name of Romania in 1862, and settled its capital in Bucharest. Cuza initiated a reform programme, which contributed to the modernisation of Romanian society and state structures. Romania proclaimed independence from Turkey on 9 May 1877. The independence of Romania, as well as the union of Dobrudja with Romania were recognised in the Russian-Turkish peace treaty of San Stefano in 1878. Romania became an independent state with the Treaty of  Berlin in 1878. It proclaimed itself a kingdom on 26 March 1881 and Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was crowned King of Romania. After World War I the state acquired Bukovina, Transylvania, Banat and Bessarabia, but in 1940 it ceded northern Transylvania to Hungary, Bessarabia and a part of Bukovina to the USSR and part of Dobrudja to Bulgaria. In 1941 Ion Antonescu led the country in its support of Germany against the USSR. At the end of the war, the country was occupied by Soviet troops. After World War II a People’s Republic was proclaimed (on 30 December 1947). King Michael I was forced to abdicate on the same day. A single-party dictatorship was established, based on an omnipotent and omnipresent surveillance and repression force. Industrial enterprises, banks and transportation were nationalised (1948), agriculture was forcibly collectivised (1949-1962), and the whole economy was developed according to five-year plans, the main goal being a Stalinist-type industrialisation. Romania became a founding member of COMECON (1949) and the Warsaw Treaty (1955). At the death of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Dezh) in 1965, the communist leader of the after-war epoch and the party was Nicolae Ceausescu. Romania distanced herself from the USSR and the country was the only Warsaw Treaty member-state that did not intervene in Czechoslovakia in 1968. Nicolae Ceausescu managed to concentrate in his hands and those of his wife Elena Ceausescu the power of the communist party and of the state system. On 16 December 1989 anti-government demonstrations were fired on in Timisoara, and president and communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu declared a state of emergency. The army and some police joined the rebellion and a “Council of National Salvation” announced that it had overthrown the government. Ceausescu and his wife Elena were captured and after a short trial (with famous words from Ceausescu that he “only recognises the Grand National Assembly”, adding: “I will only speak in front of it”) they were executed on 25 December 1989. Romania had at the end of the regime to make a transition with a largely obsolete socialist industrial base. The country got a new constitution on 8 December 1991, and revised it in 2003. Former communists continued to dominate Romania’s political life until 1996, when a central government took power. In Romanian elections at the end of 2004, former communist Ion Iliescu, who had been president since 2000, and left-wing Prime Minister Adrian Năstase lost their positions. Traian Basescu became the new president and Calin Constantin Anton Popescu – Tariceanu got the prime minister’s job. Traian Basescu, who represents the National Liberal Party (PNL) – Democrat Party (PD) alliance, pulled in 51.3% of the vote in the second presidential election tour. Former Prime Minister Năstase, representing the Social-Liberal Party (PSD) and the Romanian Humanist Party (PUR), got 48.77%. Important political parities are: the Democratic Party (PD); the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR); the National Liberal Party (PNL); the Romania Mare Party (Greater Romanian Party – PRM); and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), formerly known as the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR). Parliament consists of the Senate (Senat) and the Chamber of Deputies (Camera Deputatilor). The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are elected in constituencies by direct expressed suffrage. The two chambers have different numbers of members: the Chamber of Deputies is composed of 332 deputies, and the Senate of 137 senators. This differentiation is possible owing to the legal provision of a representation norm differing from one chamber to the other. Thus for the election of the Chamber of Deputies the representation norm is of one deputy to 70,000 inhabitants, and for the election of the Senate, of one Senator to 160,000 inhabitants. UN, NATO and OSCE member Romania is a candidate, together with Bulgaria and Croatia, to join the European Union (EU) during the next membership wave (in 2007 with Bulgaria, but there is a safeguard clause which under certain conditions may postpone EU membership for both countries by a year). The EU Commission published an October 2005 paper called the Regular Report on Romania’s progress towards accession. According to this report, Romania continues to fulfil the political criteria for EU accession and has taken decisive steps to further reform the judiciary system and make it more independent and to improve the situation for media freedom, property restitution, minorities and child protection. However, a number of shortcomings still exist: significant efforts are needed to pursue the reform of public administration, effectively implement reform of the justice system and ensure effective enforcement of the fight against corruption, including high level corruption. In the area of human rights and the protection of minorities, further efforts are needed in particular to improve the situation of disabled and mentally ill people. Regarding economic criteria, Romania is considered a functioning market economy which has “broadly maintained macroeconomic stability, even though policy has widened macroeconomic imbalances”. The report considers that “vigorously implementing its structural reform programme should enable it to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the union”. The implementation of a currency reform passed in 2004 began on 1 July 2005. The currency was re-denominated at a ratio of 1:10,000 through new bank notes and coins. The old money can be legally used until 31 December 2006. This change also brought a revision of the country monetary code: from ROL (until 1 July 2005) it changed to RON.