Corina Șuteu

The cultural cooperation logic marking the last 14 years in Southeastern Europe (SEE) has to be
regarded from a broad perspective as driven not only by the consequences of the collapse of the
communist institutional order, but also as a result of the general transformations taking place at a
European and international level: the challenges resulting from the liberalization of markets,
globalization processes and technological revolution (new technologies, information support for
knowledge, deepening inequality North/South, the redefinition of the role of culture and the
growing tendency towards transversal governance, replacing the pyramidal paradigm of
authority).

It was two days after the first of May glittering EU enlargement ceremonies
ended. As usual before one of my trips to somewhere in Europe, I was taking the
taxi in Nantes and saying bye-bye in Romanian to my sixteen year old daughter,
who, despite her French schooling, still speaks her mother tongue pretty well.
As I prepared to leave, the young French taxi driver looked on with what I
thought to be the average curiosity that we are now so used to, after ten years of
‘where does your accent come from?’ and, ‘what is your nationality, Madame, if
I am not too indiscreet…?’