Out of the Darkness

But 200 miles south of here in Bucharest, hundreds of bureaucrats in Basescu's government are working late into the night to harmonize laws with those of Europe -- upgrading border security regulations, modernizing environmental law, and changing hiring and promotion guidelines for civil servants to attack cronyism and graft.

A popular Sunday television show educates Romanians on the changes. Set in a country pub, characters poke fun at the E.U.'s stilted bureaucratic jargon and explain issues that come with joining Europe, such as farm credits and regulations about genetically modified soybeans.

"The Romanian people look at this integration on the 1st of January as a salvation," said Stelian Tanase, a political analyst. "But Romanians have started to understand the real price: We have to change our way of life."

Controlling Corruption

First and foremost, according to everyone from President Basescu to rural goatherds, that means attacking corruption. Bribery and kickbacks have long greased life in Romania, whether it's paying big money to win a government contract or slipping a train conductor a little cash for a cut-rate ticket.

"The low standard of living in Romania is caused by the high levels of corruption," said Marcel Daniel Ghemes, 37, a night watchman in the Transylvanian town of Targu Mures in the country's central region. He said rampant corruption has allowed officials to get rich while he and other hardworking people live in drab apartment blocks.

Ghemes, his wife and their two children survive on the $130 a month he earns and the $130 a month his wife earns at a glove factory. The children sleep in the apartment's bedroom while the parents bed down in the living room.

Ghemes predicted that E.U. membership will make life better for him by bringing more investment, jobs and prosperity, and tougher for corrupt politicians because of new laws scrutinizing their behavior. It's already happening, he said, citing the woman Romanians know as Aunt Tamara.

Officials from the National Anti-Corruption Department, created last year under pressure from the E.U., announced in January that they were investigating the wealth of Adrian Nastase, a prominent legislator who was prime minister from 2000 to 2004. At issue is how Nastase obtained three apartments, jewelry and cash, together worth more than $1 million.

He has said they were an inheritance from his wife's aunt Tamara, who died last year. That assertion became an instant punch line on Romanian television as local media reported that the deceased woman had no obvious signs of such wealth.

The property would likely never have come to light were it not for a financial disclosure form, introduced as part of the E.U.-mandated revamp, that Nastase filed on Dec. 30.

In February, prosecutors charged him with corruption violations connected to his purchase of an upscale Bucharest home in 1998, allegedly bought from a lawmaker's relative for a price 25 times lower than its market value.

Nastase has denied wrongdoing, and his supporters argue that he has been targeted in a political campaign to show the E.U. that big fish can be caught. But other people call the case a genuine breakthrough. "A couple of years ago, nobody thought that they would start to investigate one of the big politicians," said Integration Minister Anca Boagiu, who presides over a ministry created to help Romania join the E.U. "I think that this is a good sign that the system's started to work."