Romania is now in a moment of choice in the adhering process, the moment when the problem appears whether it will accelerate the integration efforts or it will change its mind, going for another way. The European Union's decision to invite Romania to start the adherence negotiations, took in December last year, at Helsinki, should have become the main political moral and financial reservoir of a constant, stubborn effort to modernize the country. This moment should have been followed by a national debate that establish the optimal modalities of achieving these project, a debate whose results should be politically accepted. All it happened was to mimic such a debate, in the hurry of composing a minimal development strategy that the Union had asked us to have, with clear delivering deadlines. In the political field, the biggest achievement was to maintain the country on the water line by the Isarescu government, in spite of the governmental split because of the electoral campaign. But at the political level and that of the public opinion, an extremely harmful phenomenon took place. We have got used to the idea that the quality of member of EU is something we already deserve. That this is just a question of time when we shall become European citizens, when Romania will get rich, eventually exclusively on the basis of non-refundable transfers from Brussels. We didn't even strive to rapidly and efficiently take back the money offered by the European payer. The SAPARD case already made a career. We have treated the situation as if it was their "duty" to give us this money, so it was their business to see when and where make us act. Briefly, we have considered the invitation addressed to us as a political gain of the most pure Balkans origin: after we had it, we can calmly wait for the development, the money, the modern institutions, the foreign investment, EU citizenship.