Official name: Romania

Capital city: Bucharest

Geographic position: in the south-east of Central Europe

Climate: temperate-continental, four seasons

Geographical landmarks:  the Carpathians mountain range, the Danube River and Delta, and the Black Sea

Population: 21,528,600 (Jan 2008)

Ethnic structure: Romanians - 89.5%; Hungarians (including Szecklers)- 6.5%; Roma - 2.5%; other ethnic groups -1.5%
 
Religious denominations: Christian Orthodox - 86.7%; Roman-Catholic-4.7%; Protestant - 3.2%; Greek-Catholic - 0.9%, Evangelical - 0.1%; Unitarian - 0.3%; other religions - 0.4% (preliminary data, March 2003)

The Romanian State:

• According to the Constitution, Romania is a sovereign and independent, unitary and indivisible national state;
• Form of government: Republic
• The state is organized according to the principle of separation and balance of the powers – the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary, in the framework of constitutional democracy, guaranteed by the political pluralism.

The President of Romania represents the Romanian state and guarantees the national independence, unity and territorial integrity of the country (5 year term). Since December 2004, Traian Băsescu has been the President of Romania.

The Legislative power: The Parliament of Romania, (471 members in the 2008-2012 legislature), divided into two chambers: the Senate of Romania (137 members) and the Chamber of Deputies (334 members).

The Executive power: the Government of Romania, headed by the Prime Minister, entrusted by the President of Romania with forming the Cabinet and with a Governance Program endorsed by Parliament through a vote of confidence.

Judiciary: independence guaranteed by the Superior Council of the Magistracy; judges are irremovable.

Romania is a member of the UN, of NATO, and as of January 1, 2007, a full member of the European Union.