Sir, Regarding ‘Cameron rallies troops for budget battle‘: UK Prime Minister David Cameron said last July that he would strongly support Turkey’s EU membership. But today I have my doubts. The EU membership of Turkey is possible towards 2016-2020 on the condition that the next budget of the EU for 2014-2020 foresees some funds for [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘France blocks Romania, Bulgaria’s Schengen bids‘: We would like to bring the following facts to your attention: 1. Romania recognises the border with Republic of Moldova as it was inherited from the USSR. The Treaty for Managing the Border (as it is correctly named) recently signed between Romania and the Republic of Moldova [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Summit sees Sarkozy, Barroso clash in bitter Roma row‘: As a convinced European, I appreciate the recent concerns over the handling by France of the situation of Roma citizens, all the more so because I am also Romanian of origin. However, I am also a person who lived for a limited period of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Bosnians hope to travel visa-free to EU by autumn‘: The governments of the Republic of Croatia, Montenegro and Macedonia have adopted a decision to temporarily facilitate the entry of aliens on tourist visits into their countries on the basis of valid Schengen residence permits and visas. Now that Bosnians hope to travel visa-free [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Serbia, Croatia to stop ‘looking back at the past‘: The problems between Serbs and Croats do not just date back to Croatia’s secession from Yugoslavia in 1991. They go back much further to World War II, when Croatia was a willing – nay, eager and enthusiastic – satellite state of Nazi Germany with [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Serbia, Croatia to stop ‘looking back at the past‘: To address these issues properly it is essential to delve into history prior to the 1990s. Surely you know that the real history of genocide goes back to 1940s Yugoslavia and WWII. That is when Christian Serbs, Jews and Gypsies were massacred simply for [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Macedonia name dispute inspires exotic idea‘: As a European I would like to state that I am extremely disappointed with the current situation in the EU. Europe is currently in a state of confusion. Corruption, a general lack of sensibility and nationalism is emerging in all EU countries, old and new, of course [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Macedonia name dispute inspires exotic idea‘ : As has repeatedly been said, the Macedonia name dispute is a matter of culture and history. And yes, these factors determine the future trajectories of both the countries concerned. The majority of FYROM’s population has nothing to do with Macedonian culture, which is Greek and reached [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Macedonia name dispute inspires exotic idea‘: It is not true that “Macedonia is recognised as the country’s constitutional name by all EU countries except Greece”. In addition, it states that “most Europeans find the Greek position puzzling or irrational”. It is impossible to know exactly what most Europeans think. No-one can read minds. [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Romania has EU’s deadliest roads, study reveals‘: The article on Romania’s road seems correct. Last weekend, we hired a car and drove to Sighisoara, less than 100km from Sibiu, where we are volunteer pastors of an English-speaking congregation. On Saturday, we drove an American-Romanian woman to her family’s home and saw one head-on [...]