By joining the European Union in 2007, Romania has regained its place in the "heart" of Europe, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday.
"It was another step on the path to ending a few decades of dictatorship, shortcomings and injustices," he said.
This step was one that "after a century of conflict and division - led to the reunification of our Europe," the French minister said.
"I said it in Prague, when we were commemorating the 1989 Revolutions, like the one that started for you in Timisoara with the slogans 'Freedom and Justice.' "Expansion", and I would like to say it again today, in front of you: I prefer the word "reunification" to the word "enlargement", which distances us from each other, because it brings us closer," pointed out Le Drian, Agerpres.ro informs.
Moreover, he said that the time of accession in 2007 "was prepared by the historic moment of 1989, when Europe was finally able to find itself".
Le Drian spoke of the moment "when, with the Iron Curtain, this completely artificial notion of Eastern Europe has finally risen."
"Indeed, our nations are different, but there has always been one Europe, the one we call our own, the one that 1989 gave us," he said.
Present at the solemn sitting of the Parliament in Bucharest, dedicated to the celebration of 15 years since Romania's accession to the EU, the French official evoked in his speech personalities such as Ionesco, Cioran, Brancusi or Alexandru Ioan Cuza.