Official Name: Romania
Location: (Southeastern) Central Europe
Time Zone: Seven hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Standard Time (GMT + 2)
Area: 92,043 sq. miles (238,391 sq. km) - a little larger than the state of Minnesota
Flag of Romania: Three vertical stripes: blue, yellow and red.
Population: 19,334,000 (October 2016)
Largest cities: Bucharest (1,883,400), Iasi (322,000), Cluj Napoca (309,000),
Timisoara (303,000), Constanta (298,000), Craiova (295,000), Galati (286,000),
Brasov (275,000), Ploiesti (224,000), Braila (205,000), Oradea (196,400).
Romania's population lives in 320 cities and towns and 12,956 villages.
Main Ethnic Groups:
Romanian 84%, Hungarian 6.1%, Gipsy 3.1%, German 0.2%, Ukrainian 0.2%
Christian Orthodox 81%, Roman Catholic 4.3%, Reformed 3%, Greek-Catholic 0.7%, Unitarian 0.3%, Jewish, other.
Official Language: Romanian
Currency: Leu ( plural Lei --- pronunciation "lay" --- abbreviations: Lei or RON )
Climate: Temperate, four distinct seasons, similar to northeastern USA
Capital: Bucharest ( București --- pronunciation: boo koo re sh tea )
Form of State: Romania is a semi-presidential democracy based on a bicameral Parliament:
the Chamber of Representatives or "Chamber of Deputies" (Camera Deputatilor) and the Senate (Senat).
All members of the legislature are directly elected from Romania's 41 counties.
Under the semi-presidential system, the president is responsible for foreign and defense policy and controls appointments of prosecutors and the judiciary.
Legal system: Based on European models and Constitution of 1991.
Electoral System: Universal direct suffrage over the age of 18.
Parties must win at least five percent of the national vote to gain
representation in the Parliament.
National Elections: Fall 2019 (presidential), Fall 2020 (parliamentary)
Head of State: President of the Republic,
currently Mr. Klaus Werner Iohannis (elected on November 16, 2014).
Romania's president can serve two consecutive five-year terms.
The government is led by the Prime Minister, nominated by the political party - or political alliance - with parliamentary majority,
approved by the President of Romania and confirmed by the Parliament.
The present Government has been nominated by the political alliance formed by the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and the Liberal-Democratic Alliance (ALDE)..
Head of the Government: the Prime Minister,
currently Mr. Sorin Grindeanu. (appointed on January 4, 2017)
Main political parties, represented in Romania's Parliament following the December 11, 2016 elections:
Social Democratic Party (PSD), National Liberal Party (PNL), The Union for Romania (USR), Democratic Union of Hungarian Ethnics in Romania (UDMR), Liberal-Democratic Alliance (ALDE), Popular Movement Party (PMP).
Regional Government: Forty-one County Councils (Consiliu Judeţean).
Romania is a member state of the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)