The cold war between Paris and Bucharest involves the customs as well

Since 2005, the relations between Romania and France have been slowly but surely deteriorating. The absence of a constructive dialog between presidents Băsescu and Sarkozy, as shown by the notorious images from the NATO summit of November 2010, when the French president angrily cut short an attempt by president Băsescu to talk to him.

There are some events, starting with the expulsion of the Rroma from France and the much-discussed contract with EADS, which could serve as the backdrop for what"s been happening lately in the Romanian customs. The chronology of the events is interesting as well, with each French action being followed by a reply on the same level by Bucharest.

The expulsion of the Rroma

Even though it didn"t go unnoticed, the "major firebug" case (some time ago, president Băsescu stated that it was better for Romania to bow before to the Big Firebug - the USA - than to the smaller firebugs - EU member countries), had less of a contribution to the excessive strain on the relations between the two countries, but the expulsion of the Rroma from France was the fuel poured on a fire that was smoldering.

France"s decision to expel the Rromas back to Bulgaria and Romania, caused heated debates in Europe. In September 2010, the European Commission threatened France with the opening of an infringement procedure, to sanction it for the expulsion, accusing the French authorities of duplicity and comparing its actions to the Holocaust. In the summit of the European Union of September 2010, the two presidents discussed the issue, and after Traian Băsescu asked for the rights of the Rroma as European citizens to be respected, a very harsh exchange took place between Nicholas Sarkozy and Jose Manuel Baroso, the chairman of the European Commission.

The Cernavodă plant

Another touchy factor in the relationship between the two states was the building of the reactors 3 and 4 of the Nuclear Electric Plant of Cernavodă. Eventually, claiming first of all the very strict regulations, as well as the state of the economy, three major European energy groups have decided to withdraw from the project. One of them includes GDF Suez as well, a French Belgian group. Shortly after that, the officials of the Ministry of the Economy announced that the Romanian government was negotiating with companies in the US, Canada and Russia the possibility acquisition of shares in the company that is building the reactors number 3 and 4 of Cernavodă.

The accession to the Schengen Space

The "friendship" between the two countries was also illustrated when France, through its secretary of state for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, curtly announced that it would make sure that the decision on Romania"s accession to the Schengen space would be delayed until the summer of 2011. In November 2010, Pierre Lellouche talked about the need for "real and efficient surveillance of the exterior borders of the EU" and "the fight against corruption". One of the statements of Lellouche was: "The Romanian-Moldavian border remains improperly guarded because of the fact that Moldovans were awarded Romanian citizenship, and because of the < black hole > represented by the separatist Transnistrian territory and due to the high level of corruption in neighboring Ukraine".

The contract with EADS

The answer to France"s attitude towards Romania"s accession to the Schengen Space came very quickly. Since no clear date for the accession existed anyway, in the beginning of this year, president Traian Băsescu proposed that the tranche of 271 million Euros that the budget for 2011 had earmarked for securing the borders be redirected to no longer be paid to the EADS group, and be redirected to the programs for supporting SMEs instead. In order to better understand the factors behind this decision, we hereinafter present a brief history of the contract with EADS, which was published in article which appeared on the cursdeguvernare.ro website. The contract in question concerns securing the Romanian borders, with a total value of almost 1 billion Euros and was awarded to a French-German company. EADS is a European group whose main shareholders are French company Sogeade and German company Daimler. Beginning the process of securing the borders was one of the mandatory conditions for Romania"s accession to the EU, and later on to the Schengen space. The contract with EADS for securing the borders was signed in 2004, in the last months of the Năstase government, without a call for tenders. On the Romanian side, the contract was signed by General Toma Zaharia, and the ceremony was attended by PM Adrian Năstase and chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The affair caused suspicions ever since the feasibility study stage: German company Bearing Point signed the contract for the study on July 15th, 2004, and with an incredible celerity, on the next day, the Romanian authorities were presented the feasibility study of securing the borders of Romania. The minimum value of the contract was 650 million Euros, to be paid over the course of several years, as the goods and services would be purchased monthly, and also provided the post-implementation maintenance. Out of this amount, Romania was going to receive an aid of 460 million out of the Phare funds and of the Schengen Facilities. In the spring of 2005, Internal Affairs Minister Vasile Blaga, hands over to the General Prosecutors" Office and to the National Anticorruption Prosecutors" Office four of the generals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that had been involved in the signing of the contract with EADS, including Toma Zaharia himself. The idea of terminating the contract with EADS was brought up, but how can one cancel a contract the signing of which involved the chancellor of the country whose voice would carry a huge weight in the decision of Romania"s accession to the Schengen space, two years after the signing of the contract in question? For five months, pressured by time and the European Commission, the Ministry of Internal Affairs renegotiated and changed the contract with the EADS. The value of the contract was reduced by 75 million Euros. In March 2009, Traian Băsescu brought the issue of the contract with EADS before Romania"s Supreme Defense Council. The head of state complained about a delay of several months in the implementation of the contract, said that the EADS requested additional payments and urged the government to do its best to complete the first stage of project b y 2011, or else risk failing the accession to the Schengen space. In August 2009, the contract with EADS was renegotiated, and by way of an addendum, the group obtained the payment of an additional 200 million Euros, for the first stage of the project, which strains the relationship between the members of the governing coalition even further: The PDL accused the PSD that PSD minister of Internal Affairs Dan Nica did not inform the Supreme Defense Council about the signing of the renegotiated contract. The total value of the contract amounts to 850 million Euros. In 2010, as the crisis worsened, the additional 200 million Euros required put the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a difficult situation: paying that amount would leave the rest of the project - the second stage (2011-2013) and the maintenance stage - without any foreseeable source of funding. However, the technical part of securing the borders is on schedule, and from that point of view Romania is ready to enter the Schengen space.