#DiplomaticCentennial George Gabriel Bologan: Trade between Romania and Italy reached a record high in 2017

Italy ranks first among foreign investors in Romania in terms of the number of companies doing business in Romania, and the trade between the two countries reached a record high value in 2017, the highest in a decade, says George Gabriel Bologan, Romania's Ambassador to Italy in an interview to AGERPRES. Romanian exports to Italy last year advanced 5.44 percent, the ambassador points out, also pointing to the "increasingly more prominent entrepreneurial activity of Romanians in Italy."

The sizeable community of Romanian citizens living in Italy - the largest outside Romania - "is fully developing " and it is noted both in a variety of fields of activity and in political and administrative life, which is seen "as a natural consequence of their good integration with the host country."

The nearly 1.2 million Romanians living in Italy, according to official data, "are united by their desire to show their own value," but also by their love for Romania, as evidenced by an "overwhelming majority of requests" to have access "to cultural and educational programmes that will allow them to keep in touch with our country, to preserve their cultural, linguistic and religious identity," says the Romanian diplomat.

However, despite their homesickness, despite the special relations between the two countries and the initiatives to lay the groundwork for the Romanian expats to return home - such as the government programme Diaspora Start-Up - "we cannot yet speak of a trend of our fellow citizens returning to their home country," says the Romanian ambassador to Italy, listing some of the reasons which he believes are to blame for such situation, as well as some solutions that could support those who are considering returning to their motherland.

Responding to a question related to cases extensively covered by the media of Romanian citizens who left to work in Italy only to fall victims to modern slavery, Bologan says that "information is the key to preventing unpleasant or even dangerous situations and to raising awareness of the possible consequences of the illegal working compromise."

As regards the desire he expressed in 2016 when he was appointed ambassador to Italy to "resize" and "reinvigorate" the relationship between Romania and Italy, Bologan stresses that dialogue with Italy has continued in the spirit of what he calls a privileged link between the two countries by carrying out joint economic, social and cultural projects, especially in the context of the Italian OSCE chairmanship in 2018 and the takeover of the EU Council Presidency by Romania in the first half of 2019, as well as the 10th anniversary of consolidated strategic partnership between Romania and Italy.

In the context of the Centennial of Romania's Greater Union of December 1, 1918, Bologan mentions that the Romanian Embassy in Italy has created thematic actions for some years, and work is being done on a series of large events organised jointly by Romanian and Italian organistions, which are posted on the embassy's website, where a special section has been created on that.

The e-mail interview is part of the editorial project #DiplomaticCentennial unfolded by AGERPRES throughout the year, with an emphasis on diplomatic relations in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Greater Union.

AGERPRES: Romanians are making up the "most sizeable community" in Italy, said former President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic Paolo Gentiloni on a visit to Bucharest in April 2005. Their levels of integration are "very satisfactory." How many Romanians are currently living in Italy; how do the Italians see them, and how is Romania generally seen in Italy?

George Gabriel Bologan: Italy is hosting the largest community of Romanians living abroad, a community spread throughout the country that according to the latest available data is numbering 1,190,091 resident Romanian citizens. Although we have significant figures regarding the contributions of the Romanian citizens to the Italian national budget and the businesses set up by Romanian citizens in Italy, they only partially reflect the developments in the integration process in recent years. There are fellow Romanians who teach at Italian universities or who make sacrifices to care for Italian children or elderly people; scientific researchers, students, engineers and Romanian physicians; agricultural and construction workers, artists who promote the creative spirit and Romanian traditions abroad. Everyone is far from their home country for various reasons, but they are united by a desire to show their own value, and the way they are perceived is determined first and foremost by the educational background of each citizen and by the way they relate to others.

The process of Romanian nationals integrating with Italian society is evolving, even if only some of its components are visible and it depends on the age of the communities, the level of culture, economic standards, the social, cultural and political pressure of the Italian milieu, etc. We could safely say that integration issues in adoptive societies have not been sufficiently theorised. There is no historical model of the evolution of the Romanian national settling abroad. I believe that the entire matter should be approached in the context of the principle of integration without renouncing on own identity, which assumes respect for the rules and values of the Italian society and all its components, without giving up the Romanian language, culture and traditions.

As far as the image of the country is concerned, I would say that Romania is beginning to be perceived correctly by an increasingly more sizeable portion of the Italian society, which does not mean that the situation cannot be further improved.

AGERPRES: This is not your first contact with Italy in your ambassadorial capacity. You studied in this country, you worked as an accredited journalist at the Vatican and you once were Romania's general consul in Milan. To what extent does this experience help you solve the problems that are reported to you by Romanian citizens in Italy? What are their main expectations?

George Gabriel Bologan: The professional activity that I have been conducting honours and obliges me at the same time. Starting from the acquired experience that makes me naturally identify myself with the Romanian community in Italy, I have always sought, both myself and my team, to bring added value by increasing empathy, support and mutual trust in fulfilling our duties. Consular services are standardised, but consular assistance is very diverse, specific for each case, and taking the necessary steps adjusts to specificity and is limited by legal possibilities and international conventions. Oftentimes, at pleasant and useful meetings with members of the Romanian community, I remind our fellow citizens even jokingly that the embassy and the consular offices should not be mistaken for the bodies of Romanian counties. Expectations, on the other hand, are great for everyone, and our human and material resources may not always be able to meet the requirements of a very large community. Oftentimes, there is no magic wand to solve personal problems, where decisions are taken more liberally and easily, let alone solutions for over one million people, where everyone has the impression that their problem is a priority. What I can assure you, and evidence of proof, is the goodwill, professionalism, readiness and willingness of our diplomatic and consular staff to be with our compatriots. We all want to do better and more - and from the signals we have received we are on the right path - but we must try to understand that some problems are common and can only be solved together, with a predisposition to a positive and constructive approach.

The overwhelming majority of the requests of Romanians in Italy have to do with their desire to have access to good quality consular services and cultural and educational programmes that will allow them to maintain their connection with our country alive and to keep their cultural, linguistic and religious identity. The Romanian state is seeking to meet these desires, by strictly observing the international diplomatic and consular conventions, as well as by building partnerships with the relevant Italian institutions for the Romanians in Italy.

Actually, given the large size of the Romanian community in Italy, the daily activity of the consular section of the embassy and of the other consular offices in the Italian Republic mainly focus on providing consular assistance to our citizens through the specialized consular staff and modern instruments, as well as through the new consular platform www.econsulat.ro, which allows Romanians to schedule online their visits to our consular offices and provides them fast services. The complex computerization process took into account including the size and capacity of the Romanian consular network in responding the needs of our citizens abroad, being created out of a desire to compensate for such inconveniences related to the physical distance existing between certain Romanian communities and the consular offices serving them. In this respect, I specify that the main vector of the consular computerization was represented by the creation, development and implementation of the Computer System for the Integrated Management of the Services for Citizens (SIMISC), part of the Integrated Computer System E-Cons, publicly launched under the slogan "The consular office closer to your home."

Due to the available facilities, SIMISC offers the Romanian citizens clear advantages such as: the comfort of submitting their requests for consular services from a distance, the possibility of obtaining updated information of a consular nature, the possibility of directly interacting with the consular staff, of avoiding repeated travels to the consular offices, decreasing wait time at the consular offices' desks, due to the streamlining of the procedural flows through these new technological instruments.

With respect to the consolidation of the emotional connection existing between the Romanian communities and their country of origin, I can only hail the degree of involvement of the Ministry for Romanians Abroad in Bucharest and the Romanian Cultural Institute in developing programmes designed for Romanians in Italy.

AGERPRES: You said you wished to increase the cohesion of the Romanian community in Italy. What is the most efficient way that you identified and that you think will help achieving this objective?

George Gabriel Bologan: I am a fervent supporter of dialogue, communication, meetings and getting to know each other. If ten years ago the associative environment was represented by protagonists who were always competing against each other, in the recent years I noticed a regrouping of the community around the existing elites, who are able to generate objectives much more attractive for the members of the Romanian community in Italy. I have recently made an inventory of the associative environment and our records showed that there are 75 associations at this moment, which are especially active in promoting Romanian culture and identity.

We have built in these past years such meetings and dialogue formats that contribute to the cohesion of the Romanian community, such as the Forum of the Romanian Associations in Italy - which is a regular event meant to bring together the representatives of the associative environment and also the successful Romanians in all fields of activity: economy, politics, university, health care, cultural etc. The core idea of this is to strengthen the relations between the embassy and the Romanian community, as well as to create a format for constant dialogue, formal and interactive, with the associative environment. And I mean now a debate platform for the ideas coming from the community and for the identification of adequate solutions to the problems facing the Romanian community in Italy. The "forum's" objective is to strengthen the organisations that represent the Romanians in Italy and determine them to participate in the political and social life of the communities in which they live. Equally, the forum facilitates exchanges of experiences between the community members, in general, and especially a direct, unmediated dialogue with successful Romanians.

I am glad that the representatives of the community, from specific fields of activity, understood the importance of the associative structures, which they started to promote and, more recently, they even started to get organised in federations.

AGERPRES: How do you think that could be avoided such situations in which the citizens who went to work in Italy were exploited like slaves or subject to sexual abuses and what has been done, in concrete terms, in this respect?

George Gabriel Bologan: The permanent dissemination of information and raising awareness about the dangers facing the Romanian citizens who are making the compromise of working on the black market starts in Romania. It's very important that these information campaigns are carried out in various counties, in order to reach their objective, for each Romanian citizen should be properly informed before traveling to another state - in our case Italy - with respect to the risks he/she will be facing when leaving abroad. Information is the key for preventing such unpleasant or even dangerous situations and for making them aware of the possible consequences of the compromise they make when working on the black market.

In what concerns the embassy's and consular offices' activity, our intervention was always prompt in signaling the failures to observe such fundamental rights and human dignity, but, many times, we were informed about such cases too late. We keep in touch and we cooperate with the Italian authorities to help the Romanian citizens facing difficult situations, who became victims of the modern slavery, but, in order for our efficiency to grow, it's very important that any Romanian citizens holding information about such possible abuses to come to us or to the relevant Italian authorities.

Our activity is based on tact, communication and discretion. I can tell you with satisfaction that, following our discussions with the Italian Minister of Labour, the Italian authorities intensified the controls, which led to several persons being held into custody, who were hiring Romanian citizens, and not only, on the black market.

Another fundamental issue - and I want to emphasize on this - is that each and every Romanian citizen who wants to come to work or study in Italy must document himself/herself first, by consulting the information made available by the relevant authorities in Romania and also he/she must take responsibility for his/her choice and its possible consequence.

AGERPRES: In the Brexit context and considering the incertitude related to the status of the community workers in the UK, do you see any possible growth in the interest of Romanians living in this country in the Italian labour market in the near future?

George Gabriel Bologan: In the recent time, the Italian economy saw a slight growth, which was also reflected in the jobs area. However, it is difficult to make estimates, in the context of the UK preparing to leave the EU, if the Romanians there will leave UK or on what their possible destinations could be. The Romanian authorities are seeking to bring the Romanian citizens working abroad back home and, in this respect, they are carrying out a series of progammes designed especially for them.

AGERPRES: The Minister for Romanians Abroad, Natalia-Elena Intotero, gave assurance in early May, while in Rome, that returning to the country could be "a good alternative to be taken into consideration" by the Romanians in Italy and that Romania "is making determined steps in trying to convince them to return." After discussing this matter with the members of the Romanian community, can you speak of a trend of them coming back to Romania and which are the elements that could attract them back home?

George Gabriel Bologan: Although in the past year there were indeed created the premises for the members of the diaspora to come home, as this was a priority of the Romanian governments - there were initiated programmes running on mixed, national and European financing, among which we mention the Start-Up Diaspora under the HCOP - we cannot talk yet of a trend of our fellow nationals returning to Romania. I for one think that the creation of an online platform with jobs available in the country or professional reconversion opportunities would be a solution for those who want to return and are looking for solutions or information.

The material advantages offered by the Romanian state are real, but most of those who emigrated in the past 15 years are young people, who did not have difficulties in integrating themselves and who have children already going to schools or universities in the respective countries - which means that their return depends on this factor too.

What I can say is that, at the level of the Ministry for Romanians Abroad and the Ministry of National Education, there are discussions on building a unitary plan and a support course for the Romanian students registered with education units abroad. The purpose is to create a unitary framework for learning Romanian language correctly, learning such elements of Romanian culture and civilisation, which will facilitate the process of integration/reintegration into the Romanian education system of the children of Romanians returning to the country together with their families.

Moreover, at government's level, some inter-ministerial groups are working on a concrete proposal to complete the measures we talked about earlier. The government wants to identify new modalities of helping Romanians abroad and convincing them to return. Romania is forced to deal with the lack of workforce every day. We want our Romanians back home, for they represent the first option in covering the workforce deficit, before looking for workforce from other states.

The Romanian citizens abroad can access, in electronic format, the list of available jobs in Romania, via the National Agency for Employment. Moreover, they can receive information about the value of the salaries in Romania which, in such fields as IT, education, health care, which are comparable with those abroad.

AGERPRES: In 2016, when you were appointed ambassador, you said you wanted to resize and make more dynamic the political relation with Italy. To what extent have these wishes materialised?

George Gabriel Bologan: Indeed, when I took over my mandate, in July 2016, I planned to make the bilateral diplomatic relation more dynamic, even if our countries are linked by a privileged friendship relation. We are living in a European and international context confronted with numerous changes in which the bilateral collaboration can provide concrete solutions to our citizens. The dialogue with Italy has continued in the spirit of this special relation, including on a sectoral level, by achieving some common projects in the economic, social and cultural areas, also taking into account the European and international context, which includes, to give some examples, the Italy's holding the OSCE Presidency in 2018, and, of course, Romania's taking over the EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2019.

In this context and on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Consolidated Strategic Partnership, in the beginning of the year there have taken place visits of the Italian PM and foreign minister to Bucharest, as well as consultations on a level of director general in terms of European affairs. Soon, we'll also hold in Rome the meeting of the parliamentary friendship group, which will allow a direct contact on the legislature level. Moreover, the bilateral political agenda this year will also include other significant moments.

AGERPRES: The Intergovernmental Summits mechanism has been established between Romania and Italy. The first edition took place in 2008 in Rome and the second, on 30 May 2011, in Bucharest. Are these summits going to be resumed?

George Gabriel Bologan: Indeed, the Intergovernmental Summits mechanism provided continuity and consistency to the political dialogue between the two countries, the organisation of a new joint government meeting in Italy being already on the bilateral discussion agenda. Based on the rotation principle, the Italian partners are going to host the next meeting. In regards to the high-level bilateral meetings, I am delighted to bring to mind the head of state level visits of the Presidents of the Italian Republic to Romania (in 2011 and 2016) and Romania's Presidents to Italy (in 2008, 2011 and 2015).

AGERPRES: During the two meetings between Romania's President Klaus Iohannis and his Italian counterpart Sergio Mattarella, the first one in Rome in 2015 and the second one in Bucharest in 2016, the two noted the existence of a potential to widen the economic relations between the two states. How have commercial exchanges between Romania and Italy evolved since then? Is there an increase in the Italian side's interest in the goods produced in our country?

George Gabriel Bologan: In 2017, the total value of commercial exchanges was the highest of the past ten years: 14.61 billion euro, up 7.62 percent from the previous year. Italy continues to be one of Romania's main economic partners: in terms of commercial exchanges value, it is ranked second, and in terms of invested capital, it ranks sixth. Last but not least, Italy is ranked first in the chart of foreign investors in terms of the number of companies present on the market, which reflects the attractiveness of the Romanian market to the Italian companies both regarding the investment opportunities and the Romanian labour force.

Last year, the Romanian exports to Italy recorded a 5.44 percent advance, reaching 7.03 billion euro. The main product categories exported to Italy are machines, devices and electric equipment (20.9 percent), textile materials and items (17.0 percent), footwear and accessories (11.5 percent), vehicles and transport equipment (9.9 percent), common metals and metallic items (7.9 percent).

AGERPRES: There is a recent increase in the interest of Romanian citizens in Italy in the direct involvement in the political life of local communities. What effects does this trend have on the Romanian community and how do Italians see this involvement?

George Gabriel Bologan: The determination of Romanians in Italy to participate in the political and administrative life of the Italian society should become an essential component of the community integration. This participation, reaching the civic parameters of the host society, can bring significant benefits to the Romanian-Italian partnership and can also have positive effects on the current and future inter-community relations.

Although the involvement of the Romanian citizens in the political life in Italy hasn't yet reached the level which the Romanian community would be entitled to have, I noticed an increase in the awareness level on the benefits brought, a necessary premise for hoping of an increased cohesion of our co-nationals around this goal. The Romanians' involvement is seen as a natural consequence of their good integration in the host country and reflects the political diversity in Italy.

AGERPRES: As part of the economic and political events organised in partnership, a great amount of attention was granted to the opportunities for Italian investments in Romania. Italy's Ambassador in Bucharest Marco Giungi said in an interview that Italy is the first country in terms of companies opened on this territory, over 45,000. In contrast, what business opportunities do the Romanian entrepreneurs have in Italy?

George Gabriel Bologan: As I was mentioning in my previous answer, the bilateral commercial relation is on a very good level, and Italy takes the first spot in terms of Romanian commercial companies running on foreign capital.

At the same time, it is worth noticing the increasing entrepreneurial activity of Romanians in Italy. According to the available data (Unioncamere and Cerved), over 24,000 companies established by Romanian citizens and 49,317 individual enterprises were registered with the Trade Register of Italy in 2017.

AGERPRES: In the education area, the relation between Romania and Italy is a special one, materialised through the existence in Romania of several Romanian-Italian bilingual classes. How can the access of Romanian youth to universities in Italy be improved, as well as the interest of young Italians in the Romanian language, culture and civilisation?

George Gabriel Bologan: In Italy, we have about 157,000 Romanian pupils and students, the most significance foreign presence in the Italian education institutions. This reflects the very good integration of the Romanian community in the host society as well as the attractiveness of the Italian education system to the young Romanians.

It is very important that the young Romanians studying in Italy have a solid partnership relation with the Romanian state institutions, so that their experience can be capitalised on. At the same time, they need a society based on values and on the culture of success, performance, work and honesty.

From this point of view, the over 200 education institutions in Italy where there are courses of Romanian Language, Culture and Civilisation (Italy being one of the pilot countries for this programme of the Romanian Language Institute), represents a true connection bridge with the Romanian pupils in Italy, and this is appreciated by the Italian authorities as well, which reflects in the increase of requests coming from Italian education institutions. I cannot help but bring to mind the support we grant to the activity of the lecturers' departments for Romanian language, literature, culture and civilisation of the universities of Italy, with the one at the University of Turin having one of the longest traditions, as it was established in 1863. Thus, we had the initiative of creating an interactive map of the two vectors for promoting Romania, which you can consult on the mission's website.

AGERPRES: A great number of exhibitions and fairs promoting the traditions, culture and landmarks of Romania are organised in Italy every year. What events do you have in view this year, on the occasion of the Great Union Centennial and what impact do you hope these events have on Italians and Romanians in Italy?

George Gabriel Bologan: The Embassy's agenda of public and cultural diplomacy is a consistent one, taking into account the special relation linking our countries, as well as the current context in which this year we are celebrating 100 years since the Great Union, 10 years of consolidated strategic partnership and preparing for holding the EU Council Presidency in the period January-June 2019.

Ever since the beginning of my mandate, I have made the public and cultural diplomacy a priority, through which we should consolidate the friendship relation between our countries and make known what units us and makes us partners an allies inside the EU and NATO.

To mark the WWI and Great Union Centennial, we organised ever since the previous years several thematic events, the exhibition "Romanian Artists in the Great War" at the Museo Centrale del Risorgimento being but one example in this respect. We are further working on a series of wide events, in collaboration with the cultural institutions in Romania, such as the concert devoted to the National Day of Romania. We will also organise, in collaboration with the Foreign Ministry of Italy, a photo-documentary exhibition dedicated to the Centennial and many other initiatives conducted in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute and its representation offices in Rome and Venice.

The coordination and collaboration with the Accademia di Romania of Rome - and I want to thank Mrs Liliana Turoiu, president of the Romanian Cultural Institute, and Mr Rudolf Dinu, director of Accademia di Romania - have achieved a better dissemination and participation for the cultural programmes, being an example of institutional synergy in the interest of promoting the national culture in an international framework by excellence, such as the one of the foreign cultural centres in Rome.

Our country will also have a significant contribution to the exhibition organised this year at the Scuderie del Quirinale of Rome museum, devoted to the great Latin poet Ovidius. More information on our actions devoted to the Centennial are available on the mission's website, where we created a special section on this topic. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Purgaru, editor: Mariana Ionescu; EN - authors: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, Cristina Zaharia, Adina Panaitescu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)