GENERAL INFORMATION

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION

Romania is located in South-East Central Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. It lies between 43º37’07” and 48º15’06” latitude north and 20º15’44” and 29º41’24” longitude east. The parallel of 45º north latitude (midway between the Equator and the North Pole) crosses Romania 70 km north of the capital, and the meridian of 25º east longitude (midway between the shore of the Atlantic and the Ural Mountains) passes 90 km west of Bucharest. Romania is situated at the contact of Central Europe with Eastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula, at the junction of major west-east and north-south European routes. Three elements have decisively marked the destiny of this area: the Carpathian Mountains, the Lower Danube and the opening to the Black Sea. With their arched form, the Carpathians determined the position of three big historical regions - the intra-Carpathian space, opening to Central Europe, the area east of the mountains, opening to the North Pontic steppes and the one south of the mountains, facing the Balkan Peninsula. The Danube (Europe’s second longest river), which separates the Carpathian area from the Balkan world, has always provided a connection between Central Europe and the Black Sea, and has opened a gate towards the Mediterranean and the eastern world. Therefore, Romania equally belongs with the Danubian and the Black Sea states, its territory constituting a bridge between Central and Southeastern Europe and the Near East.

BOUNDARIES
Romania’s borders total 3,149.9 km. Two thirds of them (2,064.4 km) are marked by rivers -- the Danube, the Prut, and the Tisza -- or follow the Black Sea shoreline, while the remaining one third (1,085.5 km) is traced over land. Romania's territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles into the Black Sea.

NEIGHBOURS
Romania borders on five countries, its sixth neighbour being the Black Sea. To the NE and E it borders on the Republic of Moldavia (681.3 km), to the N and E on Ukraine (649.4 km), to the SE on the Black Sea (193.5 km), to the S on Bulgaria (631.3 km), to the SW on Yugoslavia (546,4 km) and to the W on Hungary (448.0 km). Between 1918 and 1991, over 40% of the borderline separated Romania from the USSR, at the time the largest country in Europe and the world.