The Romania-France Cultural Season

Bucharest and Paris will organise over December 2018-July 2019, the Romania-France Cultural Season

Roxana Vasile, 20.03.2018, 13:20

Romania is closely linked to France. It has always boasted privileged relations with that country! Actually, Romanian Foreign Minister Teodor Meleşcanu has said that this year, on December 1, Romania will celebrate 100 years since the setting up of the Romanian unitary state and it is very important to underline the role played by France in defining Romania and the modern Romanian society, as well as its path to success. The International Francophonie Day is marked every year, on March 20, and therefore Francophonie and Francophilia have played an important role in this process, among others. Romania’s Ambassador to Paris, Luca Niculescu, has reviewed, for our radio station, some of the reasons why Romania is important for the Francophonie and most importantly, why Francophonie is important for Romania:

“Romania is important for Francophonie. It hosted the first summit held in a East-European country, in 2006. Bucharest is also home to a regional bureau of the International Organisation of the Francophonie, the President of the Francophone University Agency is a Romanian, Sorin Câmpeanu, and this agency includes 800 universities the world over. We also grant the Eugen Ionescu scholarships –and we receive scores of applications every year at Romania’s Embassy. At the same time, Francophonie means openness, diversity, multiculturalism. This is the first organisation that Romania joined after 1990 and it offers our country the opportunity to foster relations with other countries where Romania has not been so well represented so far.”

To render more visible the already tight relations between Romania and France, sanctioned under the strategic partnership between the two countries, Bucharest and Paris will organise the Romania-France Season, which will lay emphasis on culture and contemporary creation, as well as on such domains as education, economy, sports and tourism. It is the most extensive such project that the two countries will be developing together in December 2018 — July 2019 and coincides with the Great Union Centennial Anniversary, the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, and with Romania’s term at the helm of the EU Council. Here is Ambassador Luca Niculescu again:

“I would dare say this season is the most extensive bilateral cultural project in which we have been involved in the past 50 years and I take the liberty to say that it will be something extraordinary. France and Romania boast old, long lasting, solid ties, but things evolve. We are partners within the EU and NATO, we have a strategic partnership, which was signed some 10 years ago. France is undoubtedly a source of inspiration for Romania, in many fields, but Romania can be just the same for France.”

Regarded as a manifesto meant to “cement” bilateral cooperation in all its diversity, the Season program will include, during a seven-month timespan, over 300 events, both in Romania and France.

(Translated by D. Vijeu)