I arrived in Austria in the summer of 2007. Not on January 1st like many European countries feared, even 7 years later. No, on January 1st, 2007 I was in Piata Universitatii in Bucharest (University Square) and celebrated what the Romanian newspapers at the time called "The New Year's Eve of Integration". Alongside French friends and other thousands of Romanians, I was taking part in a historic moment for Romania: its accession to the European Union 18 years after the fall of Communism.