#DiplomaticCentennial/Gabriela Dancau: Romanians, integrated in Spain, but miss their country, some consider returning home

Enhancing bilateral relation between Romanian and Spain to the level of a Strategic Partnership basically meant Romania's integration into a small group of EU countries with which Spain has this level of maximum priority and consistency in bilateral relations, in which context, and while also considering the celebration by Romania of its Greater Union Centennial this year, while also preparing to take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union at the beginning of next year, the officials are also contemplating to have the first inter-governmental reunion between Romania and Spain, in the near future, Romania's Ambassador to Spain, Gabriela Dancau, told an interview granted to AGERPRES.

The Romanian community in Spain continues to be the second most numerous Romanian community abroad, after the one in Italy, confirmed Gabriela Dancau, and it is active, strong, well integrated into the Spanish environment community, she added. However, the Romanian diplomat also remarked that all Romanians in Spain miss their country, while some of them contemplate their chances of coming back. For those who want to return, the Romanian Embassy in Madrid and the Romanian consular offices in Spain promoted a series of initiatives, among which such sessions where information is provided about the governmental programme "Diaspora Start-up", which enjoyed a great number of participants, showing just how interested Romanians are in returning back to their country.

In answering a question related to the cases of workplace exploitation, the Romanian Ambassador drew attention that a good part of the cases of violation of the employees' rights were caused by the fact that the Romanians did not know their rights well enough, from the very beginning, for which reasons both the authorities in Romania and the Embassy and the Romanian consular offices in Spain are constantly conducting such information campaigns to make Romanians aware about the rights and obligations on the labour market abroad and about the signals that warns them they might be one of the cases of exploitation at the workplace.

In respect to the requests for consular services, Ambassador Gabriela Dancau mentioned that the consular section of the Embassy and the consular offices are using a new platform that allows Romanians to schedule their visit to the consular office online and grants them access to the services that they need more quickly, as this computerization process was especially created out of a desire to compensate for some of the difficulties related to the physical distance existing between certain Romanian communities and the consular offices.

The Romanian Embassy in Madrid regularly organizes cultural events for the Romanians in Spain, such as the Open Doors Day at the Embassy, the celebration of the Romanian traditional holidays, book fairs, exhibitions, conferences, film screenings, theatre and music shows, lectures for children etc., the Romanian Ambassador also said, while mentioning that, as part of the manifestations carried out in the context of the celebration of the Greater Union Centennial, the Embassy organized two important events including with AGERPRES, namely the photography exhibition called "Romania: Evolution" and the screening of the journalistic documentary "'The Greater Union: Romania 100 Years On."

The interview, which was done via e-mail, is part of the editorial project called #DiplomaticCentennial, carried out by AGERPRES during the entire year, with a focus on the diplomatic relations of Romania, in the context of the celebration by the country of 100 years since its Greater Union.

AGERPRES: This year's summer there will be five years since the singing of a strategic partnership between Romania and Spain. What are the novelties brought by this partnership in terms of the bilateral relations, on a political, economic and commercial level, what are the most important achievements that were made and what do you expect to achieve next?
Gabriela Dancau: I believe that everyone knows this, as part of our foreign policy opened to cooperation with other states, we have a series of bilateral relations that stand out through their firmness and amplitude, with Romania having concluded quite a few strategic partnerships and special relations with countries from Europe, Asia and North America so far.
By enhancing bilateral relations with Spain to the level of a Strategic Partnership, starting with 2013, Romania basically became part of the close group of EU countries with which Spain has this level of maximum priority and consistency in bilateral relations (such as France, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Poland), and at the same time, a political-institutional framework was also created for the initiation of a mechanism to lead to the organization of a high level inter-governmental meeting. From that point until now, all the political-diplomatic actions have focused on the development of this partnership, with a view to obtaining benefits for both countries.
I am certain that the new Spanish Executive will show the same willingness as the previous one to cooperate with Romania, given that our bilateral relations are facing an upward trend right now, also because of the convergent points that we share on many of the items on our common working agenda, especially at European level. In my opinion, the current favourable context - the marking of the Greater Union Centennial and the fact that Romania is preparing to take over soon the Presidency of the Council of the European Union - represent a building momentum that could contribute to the organization of the first Romanian-Spanish inter-governmental meeting, in the second semestre of this year, thus allowing for the promotion of an agenda of complex bilateral talks on many common interest topical issues.

AGERPRES: Spain is known to be, according to the official statistics, the country with the most numerous Romanian community, after Italy. How has this community evolved in terms of numbers, according to the most recent information available? Have you noticed any trend among the Romanians in Spain to migrate to other European countries, especially to the ones in the northern area of the continent, such as the UK, Germany or the Scandinavian countries?
Gabriela Dancau: Indeed, the Romanian community in Spain is the second most numerous after the one in Italy and the largest national minority in Spain, having become a significant presence here, both in terms of numbers and in qualitative terms. According to the Spanish statistics, on December 31, 2017 (the most recent data published so far), there were 1,030,054 Romanian residents in Spain holding Romanian citizenship. The affinities generated by our common Latin heritage created the necessary connection for dialogue, which made it easier for the Romanians in Spain not just to quickly learn the Spanish language, but also to get familiarized with the Spanish mentality and culture, while thus generating a positive attitude among the descendants of Cervantes towards Romanians.
In my opinion, the Romanian community in Spain is active, strong, well-integrated into the Spanish environment, plays a very special role in the development of the bilateral relations and brings an important contribution to the development of the Spanish economy, as well as to the Romanian one. From this perspective, but also in the context generated by the recent transformations at EU level after Brexit, I wouldn't rush to anticipate any trend in what concerns the relocation of the Romanians in Spain to the states in the northern area of the continent.

AGERPRE: Many Romanians chose to work in Spain and in other EU countries, which led to an acute lack of work force back in the country. What do you think the Romanian state and the business milieu should do in order to stimulate the return of Romanians to their country, so that they can become useful to the Romanian economy? Does the Embassy in Madrid participate in any initiatives of this kind?
Gabriela Dancau: Yes, of course. First of all, the Romanian Embassy in the Spanish Kingdom and the consular offices promoted and hosted many events during which there took place such information sessions with respect to the governmental programme "Diaspora Start-Up", meant to support the Romanians in the Diaspora who are planning to start a business in Romania and who need to be included in the larger projects carried out by the organizations having obtained European funds through POCU 2014-2020. The great number of participants in all these information sessions held in Spain allows me to believe that the proposed entrepreneurship scheme proved to be a very useful exercise for the Romanian community here.
Second of all, supporting and promoting the economic field, and especially entrepreneurship, continues to be one of our priorities, for which reason, in order to support the business community, we regularly organized at our diplomatic mission headquarters networking sessions between the representatives of the companies running on Romanian capital and also such activities meant to provide information in various fields of interest with the participation of the Spanish authorities.

AGERPRES: While discussing with the members of the Romanian community, have you noticed any availability among them to give up their activities in Spain in such sectors as agriculture, constructions, services, in order to work in Romania and, if yes, under what terms?
Gabriela Dancau: We maintain a permanent contact with the Romanian community in Spain, we discuss with the Romanian associations, the Romanian parishes, of all denominations. One of the main messages that the Romanians living in Spain convey to us is that they miss their country, even if they are well-integrated here, and some of them are considering the perspective to return to Romania. We are speaking here of people who are active on the labour market (with the average age of Romanians in Spain being of just 35 years, and unemployment among them below the Spanish average) and people with initiative, proved by the fact that they had the necessary courage and determination to move to another country. Their interest in coming back to Romania and their appetite for business are the reasons why such programmes as "Diaspora Start-UP", as we have mentioned earlier, have generated a lot of interest in Spain, as they offer the possibility of significant non-reimbursable funding for those who want to start a business in Romania. Both we and the Romanian community in Spain, are going to keep watching with interest what will further happen with this programme and the potential success stories generated by it, which could become models for other Romanians who want to return home.

AGERPRES: A phenomenon that seems to persists is exploitation at the workplace, with this problem affecting in some areas the communities of East-Europeans and extra-community immigrants. Besides the case that was discovered in July, last year, of the 39 Romanians exploited by their Spanish employers in the Cuenca province, have there been more such cases? What do Romanians in Spain tell you about this phenomenon?
Gabriela Dancau: The Spanish authorities and the Romanian ones both approach this problem of exploitation at the workplace very seriously. That's why there is a tight cooperation between the Romanian and Spanish authorities in fighting this phenomenon, a collaboration that is based on dialogue at expert level from the Labour Ministries and other authorities, which sometimes ends in investigations and police stepping in, in some of the cases. Which is why the Romanian authorities and the Embassy, and the Romanian consular offices in Spain are carrying out all the time these information campaigns to make people aware of their rights and obligations on the labour market abroad and of the warning signs of potential labour exploitation cases. These campaigns' objective is not just to prevent such serious cases of exploitation from happening, but they are also meant to have every Romanian in Spain informed about his/her full rights related to his/her work and residence in Spain.

AGERPRES: To what extent are the consular offices in Romania and Spain able to deal with the requests of the Romanian community? Were any new online facilities introduced to avoid logistical problems such as the long distances some of them needed to travel to come to the consular offices?
Gabriela Dancau: Given the large size of the Romanian community in Spain, the consular section of the Embassy and the seven consular offices in Spain are first of all focusing in their daily activity in granting assistance to our citizens through the specialized personnel that we have and the modern means at hand, such as the new consular platform: www.econsulat.ro, which allows the Romanians to establish the date of their visit online and obtain access to the services that they need more easily. The complex computerization process was based including on the capacity of the Romanian consular offices in answering the needs of the citizens abroad, while they were also created out of the need of countering such difficulties related to the physical distance between some of the Romanian communities and the consular offices meant for them.
Thus, I want to specify that the main purpose of the consular computerization process was represented by the creation, development and implementation of the Computer System for the Integrated Management of the Services for the Citizens (SIMISC), part of the E-Cons Integrated Computer System, publicly launched under the slogan "The consular office, closer to your home." Due to the facilities available, the SIMISC offers Romanian citizens such real advantages as: the comfort of making their requests with the consular offices from a distance, by using these new computer means. As many as 165,151 services were processed by the consular offices in Spain in 2017. Among them, 33,447 services were directly completed by the Romanian citizens, through the External Portal of www.econsulat.ro, which represents 20.47 percent of the total services.
Moreover, in order to meet the needs of the Romanian community and facilitate the citizens' access to our range of consular services, in geographical terms, the Romanian Embassy in Madrid successfully discussed with the Spanish authorities about the modification of the circumscriptions of the consular offices of Romania on the Spanish territory, a demarche completed not long ago.

AGERPRES: What were the implications for the Romanian-Spanish economic relations and the Romanian community in the area of the decision of some Spanish companies to move their headquarters from Catalonia during the crisis provoked by the secession attempt?
Gabriela Dancau: In respect to the developments in Catalonia, I bring to mind the fact that the Romanian authorities have repeatedly voiced their firm support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Spain. I reiterate this main position, based on the international laws, which do not allow territorial modifications while breaking the internal normative framework of the respective state and without the respective state's consent.
After the illegal referendum of October 1, 2017 in Catalonia, more than 3,500 Catalan companies moved their registered offices to other regions. The head office of a Spanish company usually hosts the meetings of the general shareholders assembly and has nothing to do with the production units or the taxes paid by that company, being just the place where the major decisions are made with respect to the company. Thus, the changing of the respective companies' head offices did not trigger the transfer of personnel or relocations of the production, having more of an impact in terms of the respective brand's image, of the trust in shareholders, investors, clients, financial markets, in the sense that the business environment prefers legal stability.
In conclusion, the decision of some of the Spanish companies to transfer their registered offices from Catalonia to other Spanish communities had no impact on the Romanian-Spanish economic relations nor on the Romanian community in Catalonia.

AGERPRES: Before taking over the position of Romanian Ambassador in Madrid, you said that you wanted the Embassy and the consular offices to become open and welcoming spaces for the Romanian community, for the organization of various events. How is the Centennial of the Greater Union celebrated this year and what events have you prepared?
Gabriela Dancau: In my opinion, they have already become open and welcoming spaces for the Romanian community, if we were able to quantify the complexity of the interesting and substantial programmes dedicated to all the public categories: from the Open Doors Day at the Embassy, the celebration of the Romanian traditional holidays, participation in book fairs, meetings with the Romanian writers and their Spanish translators, organization of exhibitions, conferences, film screenings, theatre and music shows, lectures for children, to the full range of courses of Romanian language and culture (LCCR) organized for all the Romanian children living in Spain. As you probably already know, the Embassy hosts cultural events, highly appreciated by the wide public, such as "The Sunday School", a project dedicated to the Romanian children in the community, "The Evenings Like Home from the Embassy," where writers from Romania or Spain come to present their books, shows, concerts performed by Romanian artists.
In the context of the manifestations occasioned by the celebration of the Greater Union Centennial, the Romanian Embassy in the Spanish Kingdom has recently organized two important events together with AGERPRES, the photography exhibition called "Romania: Evolution" and the screening of the journalistic documentary "Greater Union - Romania, 100 years on," which were both very well received by the Spanish public and the Romanian one.
Thus, the very dynamic programme described here cannot but reconfirm the fact that the promotion of the Romanian community's interests and the relation with its representatives continues to be the Embassy's and the consular offices' top priority. In the year and a half that has passed since I took over my office as Ambassador, the Romanians in this community have witnessed the constant efforts of the Embassy to maintain a pro-active communication and promote actions organized to their benefit.
Thus, I could say that this year's spring was marked by the Greater Union Centennial, as it was dedicated to all Romanians in Spain, if we think of only two of the major events that we organized, besides the ones the Romanian community is already used to, respectively the first edition of the Forum of Romanian Associations in Spain (March), which promoted a new inter-active dialogue with the associative environment, and the cultural marathon of 100 events, initiated by ICR (Romanian Cultural Institute) in Madrid, under the patronage of the Romanian Embassy in the Spanish Kingdom, which basically marked Romania's participation as a guest of honour in the Madrid Book Fair (May-June). Our country's presence at this important literature fair in Madrid, initiated in 1933, represented an excellent opportunity to show Spain, with which we share a long historical tradition, the important moments of Romania's history and culture.

AGERPRES: One topical issue at the EU level is the development of the European project, in the Brexit context and of the opinions supporting a federalist Europe, as opposed to those opinions supporting the strengthening of the national states. Which of these approaches do the Spanish politicians prefer with respect to the community block reform and the future of the Europe Union?
Gabriela Dancau: It is obvious that all the EU member states are interested in the debates concerning the future of the European project. For Romania, the interest is all the more special as on January 1, 2019 the country will take over for the first time the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which is an extraordinary opportunity for us to reconfirm our pro-European profile and prove the country's commitment to strengthening the European project through the promotion of the European values.
Romania will exercise its mandate in a complex context, marked by the negotiations related to European Commission's proposal regarding the multi-annual financial framework post-2020, the exiting of the community block by the United Kingdom and also the organization of the European elections, end-May 2019. All these aspects, however, won't prevent us from defining a substantial political agenda that places the European citizens at its core, and thus contributing to the discussions of the leaders at the Summit in Sibiu of May 9, 2019, in defining the future of the European Union.
We will equally continue to watch with great interest Spain's positioning when it comes to European topics of common interests, many of which becoming convergent elements in our relationship, such as financing the main European traditional policies (cohesion and agriculture).
The first spot of the political debates at national and European level was often taken by the importance of maintaining "a close relation" between Spain and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, post-Brexit, in order to maintain the integrity of the internal market and the security of the citizens.

I am sure that the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, in the first half of next year, will be a success in Madrid, too, considering the extended agenda of events that we intend to organize together with the Spanish authorities and the Representative Office of the European Commission in Madrid. AGERPRES (RO - author: Sorin Popescu, editor: Gabriela Ionescu; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Simona Iacob)