Romania Flag

Description

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It has borders with the Black Sea to the southeast, Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, and Moldova to the east. It has a predominantly temperate continental climate. With a total area of 238,397 square kilometres (92,046 square miles), Romania is the 12th largest country and also the 7th most populous member state of the European Union, having almost 20 million inhabitants. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, and other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța, Craiova, Brașov, and Galați.

The national flag of Romania is a tricolour with vertical stripes, beginning from the flagpole: blue, yellow and red. The Constitution of Romania provides that “The flag of Romania is tricolour; the colours are arranged vertically in the following order from the flagpole: blue, yellow, red”. The proportions, shades of colour as well as the flag protocol were established by law in 1994 and extended in 2001. The colours represent liberty, justice and fraternity. The flag is coincidentally very similar to the civil flag of Andorra and the state flag of Chad. The similarity with Chad’s flag, which is identical apart from allowing a broader range of shades of blue, yellow and red, has caused international discussion. In 2004, Chad asked the United Nations to examine the issue, but the then-president of Romania Ion Iliescu announced no change would occur to the flag. The flag of Moldova is related to the Romanian tricolour, except it has a 1:2 ratio, a lighter shade of blue, a slightly different tint of yellow, and the Moldovan coat of arms in the middle. The civil ensign of Belgium uses black rather than blue.