Financiarul

Romania is in a precarious situation in the European Union in point of life expectancy, a fact that makes it necessary to implement some concerted policies in order to solve this problem, Senate President Mircea Geoana on Wednesday told the festive event organized on the 35th anniversary of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Bucharest.

“We cannot help seeing a harsh reality. Romania has some of the worst indicators in the European Union in point of death rate, maternal death rate, incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, therefore in point of life expectancy.

Romania has some of the most precarious situations in the EU.

Hence, the need for some concerted, pluridisciplinary policies.

Never can one single policy solve such a complex subject connected to the access to health services, information, education, equal chances and opportunities in life and society,” said Mircea Geoana.

The President of the Senate explained that the current economic and financial crisis brought back the subject of the population with even more harshness.

“If we are going to be through a time of worsening poverty, a time of growing gaps between the developed nations and the developing ones and if, following this crisis, we are going to see tens or maybe hundreds of millions of citizens as victims to poverty, this problem will become more acute and even explosive,” said Geoana, who added that, in parallel with the anti-crisis measures and with the attempts at limiting the socioeconomic effects of the crisis, one needed more determination to this kind of problems.

According to Mircea Geoana, Romania and the South-East European region have a significant problem in point of population.

“We witness a marked decrease in Romania’s population.

This holds good for the entire former communist area. We see a decline of the population, its aging, the economic migration in unprecedented large numbers. Romania alone has almost 3 million Romanians who chose the road of economic migration.

The provocations to our nations are enormous and they must be given a courageous, integrated and many-sided answer.

No nation can solve this kind of problem by itself,” said Geoana.

In his opinion, the economic and financial crisis should be a message meant to direct people’s attention to the subject of the population.

He mentioned the fact that Romania drew up a national strategy on sustainable development meant for 2013, 2020 ad 2030, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Development Programme and with the support and involvement of the Romanian Academy.