Скачать или смотреть No election fever in EU funded village in Romania

(24 May 2019) Romanians will go to the polls for the European Parliament elections on Sunday.
Voter turnout across the continent has been declining for decades, falling to an all-time low of 42.5 percent in 2014.
That included a range from 13 percent in Slovakia to 90 percent in Belgium, where voting is compulsory.
Last month, the EU launched a three-minute video to inspire more Europeans to vote.
In 2014, the Romanian village of Luncavita had one of the lowest voter turnouts in the country for the European Parliament election, all of 19.3 percent.
But the southeastern village has increasingly figured out how to draw in exceptional amounts of European Union money for development projects.
Now when the polling stations open again Sunday, more residents say they will be there.
The village's turnout was hardly an exception in Romania's Tulcea County, where just 27.5 percent of eligible voters cast ballots, the second-lowest figure in Romania, according to the Permanent Electoral Authority.
"You can find this effect across Eastern Europe," said Sorin Ionita, a political analyst with Expert Forum, a Bucharest-based think-tank.
"Europe is something far, something that works anyway without us", he added.
Since 2004, Luncavita has attracted more than 55 million euros (approx. 61.3 million US dollars) in European funds, or almost 12,000 euros (approx. 13,345 US dollars) for each of its 4,600 residents.
Among other projects, EU money has financed the local drinking water and sewage system, a water treatment plant, roads and a school renovation.
For Luncavita Mayor Stefan Ilie, the EU "is fundamental to our development".
"If Romania were to exit the EU tomorrow, it would return to communism within five years," Ilie said.
Marioara Banea, a 63-year-old local retiree, remembers tying a rope from her home to the backyard outhouse so her blind mother could find it.
"The EU changed my life", Banea said.
"We have running water now. We used to go to the water pit in the village, we would have to queue there."
Despite the EU-related benefits, she didn't vote in the EU elections in 2009 or 2014.
But now that she can see how much money the EU has given to the village, she will cast her ballot.
While some 3.6 million Romanians, most under the age of 40, have left the country since it joined the EU in 2007, European money is also helping to bring some of them back to Luncavita.
After working for six years in Italy, Radu Canepa, 34, came back to Romania and started a small farm with 30,000 euros (approx. 33,420 US dollars) in EU funding, buying some land and five cows.
The milk he sells to a local processing plant brings about in 1,000 euros (approx. 1,115 US dollars) a month.
Canepa hopes to apply for an addition 10,000 euros (11,180 US dollars) to expand his business.
He added that he might still be living in Italy if it weren't for the EU funds.
Valentina Radu also worked in Italy, but when her husband lost his job there, they struggled to pay the rent and decided to come home.
They also used EU funds to buy a small farm, which now has 25 cows.
But Radu wanted to have a second business, she settled on opening a tailor's shop.
She bought machinery and raw materials with the help of the 70,000 euros (approx. 78,000 US dollars) she received from the EU and her traditional Romanian blouses and skirts are now in high demand.
Radu is very appreciative of the EU's role in her successful enterprises, saying the bloc has changed her life for the better.
"Of course now I'll go and vote because I want to expand my business and I can do that with EU funds," Radu added.

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