IRISH farm interests have nothing to fear from the prospect of Romania joining the EU, according to the new ambassador in Dublin, Dr Elena Zamfirescu. Romania should be looked upon not as a threat but as a large market, and a bridgehead for exports to other countries in the area.
Irish trade with Romania is small, but weighted heavily in Ireland's favour. We exported £6.84 million worth of goods there last year, while importing just £1.13 million worth. Political contacts have been limited too, with two visits to Romania in the 1990s by Ministers of State.
Dr Zamfirescu aims to change that. Romania has decided to have a full time resident ambassador here. "It is a signal that Romania pays as much attention to Ireland as to any other EU member," she says.
She acknowledges that Romania is not expected to be in the first group of central and eastern European countries (CEECs) to join the European Union, but argues that these countries should not be admitted in groups, as currently planned. "Our philosophy is that negotiations should be opened with all applicant countries on the same day. Each should then join the union when it is ready to do so."
She dismisses fears sometimes expressed in Ireland that the accession to the EU of countries such as Romania with a large agricultural sector will be detrimental to Ireland. "Romanian agriculture would complement rather than compete with Ireland's agriculture. We mainly produce wheat, grain, fruit and vegetables," she says.
She says that the Common Agricultural policy will be reformed soon anyway, and that Ireland will lose subsidies from Brussels, but not because of the accession of countries such as her own.
Dr Zamfirescu joined the Communist Party in 1969 as a student and spent 20 years as a member, managing to have no function or involvement in the party at all. Being a party member was a price you had to pay to have a career, she says. "I joined because I had to do it but it was in a different context than in the 1980s."
When the regime collapsed and Ceausescu was shot dead in 1989, the new Romanian Minister for Foreign Affairs asked Dr Zamfirescu to join the Ministry as diplomatic counsellor. Before her appointment to Ireland she worked as counsellor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and as head of the Policy Planning Division.
There are former communists in positions of power and in many political parties, she says, but it would be a mistake to see this as a sign that the old regime retains much influence.
The leader of the main opposition alliance, for example, was communist party secretary at the University of Bucharest. The party seen as the main successor to the communists is the Socialist Labour Party, yet its candidate for the mayoralty of Bucharest is a millionaire businessman.
The reality, she says, is that most political parties attempt to be "catch all" parties, as in the west. "It is simplistic to talk of reformed communists, left and right in Rumania now.
On November 3rd, Romanians go to the polls to elect a president and parliament for the second time.