Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary, Serbia Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Bulgaria.

Romania emerged as a personal union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and as the Kingdom of Romania, it gained recognition of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. In 1918, at the end of the World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Romania remained neutral after the start of the World War II in September 1939 and entered the war against the Soviet Union on the side of the Axis powers in 1941. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Republic of Moldova) were occupied by the Soviet Union and Romania became a socialist republic, member of the Warsaw Pact.

After the 1989 Revolution, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms such as low flat tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Romania is now an upper-middle income country with high human development, although within the European Union, Romania's income level remains one of the lowest.