Will Romania unite with Moldova or not? Should we read Moscow's press, we might think that the unification is imminent and represents the new regional tsunami that will stir Eastern Europe. As always when the Russian propaganda is mobilizing Moldova's Russian-speaking citizens, we are not blameless. However, there is a long way to go from Basescu's blunder to Romania's current relations with Moldova.

“Where Europe Ends”, a powerful new film by Alina Mungiu Pippidi, a Romanian scholar and activist, shows the effect of the European Union’s expansion in dividing Europe, writes The Economist in its Jan 21 edition. The combination of physical decay and human dislocation is poignant. The footage of disintegrating churches, ruined public buildings, shabby homes and bumpy roads leaves the viewer in no doubt of both the region’s rich heritage and its dirt-poor present.

Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, director of a Romanian think tank promoting good governance, is cautiously optimistic about Romania’s future. Twenty years after the Christmas revolution, her country is in the European Union, “just where it should be,” she responds to Romania’s critics. Today Mungiu-Pippidi teaches Democratization Studies at the Hertie School of Governance.

The Boc government wants to create two integrated energy companies on the Romanian electricity market, bringing on the agenda an older idea of the Tariceanu cabinet. Thus, the saga of the energy sector restructuring continues, with an idea which is even worse than that of 2008. SAR sees only negative consequences - and not a single benefit from such a measure.

As one of the winners of this competition, SAR will receive a symbolic prize of 1000 USD, while the winning projects will be recommended for financing by the Partnership for Transparency Fund. The project submitted by SAR would monitor the activity of the Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) and the agency one responsible with public procurement (ANRMAP).