[john_flintstone]

Sorry, but no.

I've been in discussions recently with a French company whose development team is based in Dublin (Ireland for the geo-illiterate). Most of the tech staff in Dublin were East European, and the company's HR department was in Romania - a non-EU country.

This EU centric perception is a media perception, and bears no relationship to the reality on the ground in Europe.

Company in question was owned by a a UK multi-national, and builds software for banks all over the world. The 'Western EU' leaning is pure fantasy. I understand why Americans like it - it's simple and straight forward, and appeals to people from what is basically a simply and straight forward country - but it's just not the reality on the ground.

!+": Romania: !+": Wasn't even aware of its EU status. Why? Because when you think EU, it simply doesn't pop up. Which points vividly to the diversity of the EU. Romania, even now, is no one's idea of a Western country. It simply ain't. It ain't western; it ain't even that European. Tarring all of Europe with some kind of EU white wash is simply foolish.

[vladd]

Romania is an EU country since 2007: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_state_of_the_European_Un...

[lucaspiller]

Maybe even more interesting are the European countries not in the EU [1]:

Iceland+, Norway+, Switzerland, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic of), Albania, Andorra, Belarus, Moldova, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein+, Vatican City, Russia, Ukraine

+ Countries that are part of the European Economic Area. (:D)

[1] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_European_countries_are_not_i...

[davidw]

> Romania - a non-EU country.

Romania is in the European Union. It is not in the Euro area monetary union, though.

[geldedus]

quote:"[Romania] ain't even that European"

No kidding. This simply shows your ignorance about Europe.

[chris_j]

Minor nitpick: Romania has been a member of the EU since 2007.