A very tough report of the European Commission on Romania's Justice system this week and the unexpected visit to Bucharest of the British Foreign minister were just as many cold showers for the people now in power in Bucharest. Their immediate effect was a decision by the Parliament to maintain a rule that 50%+1 of the registered voters have to cast their ballots in a referendum to dismiss suspended President Traian Basescu late this month. As a long term effect, the signals mean something else as well: Romania is no longer by itself in a world which invested in it both economically and geo-strategically.

Let's recall the June 13-15, 1990 violent "miner's crusade" to crush demonstrations in Bucharest: the Western condemnation of the events was accompanied by a years-long period of almost total isolation. The political and diplomatic isolation overlapped with the absence of any foreign capital. Bucharest was not the place to be for them.

Now, the framework is completely changed.

Romania is part of the EU and the EU knows it has to preserve investments made by European capital in Romania. Pressure by large business groups on Brussels is there even though the public at large cannot see it. The EU also knows it has to fight to preserve fundamental freedoms in Romania and for the rule of law. Unless it manages to do so, it risks becoming the laughing stock globally, as a political entity unable to keep in check its own members and thus even less capable to preach democracy elsewhere.

Romania is also part of an essential energy project for the EU: Nabucco. Born with pain and despite resistance or non-combat from some of the member states, the Nabucco project is the real, palpable stake. A misstep by Bucharest from the common path would mean sentencing the pipeline which cuts some of Russia's aces in its relationship with the EU.