Bon Sommet!

Yesterday, after a 20 minute-long delay and a little revolt of the Romanians photo-reporters, the reunion of the francophone leaders started.

The long-expected "sommet" was initiated yesterday in Bucharest after a "diplomatic" delay of only 20 minutes. Delegations from more than 60 states have arrived in the Romanian capital to take part in the 11th Francophone Summit, the main theme of which is "the Information Technology in Education". The first day had two main parts, an official one and an unofficial one, like the Parliament’s Palace hosted two separate events. On one hand, in the imposing "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" Room, the officials on five continents were happy to take part in the 11th Francophone Summit, while two floors below, in the press room (the press floor more precisely), the chaos started.

APPLAUSES FOR THE INTEGRATION. President Traian Basescu opened the Summit sessions. He welcomed his guests in French and said it was a great honor for his country to be the first in Europe to host this conference after France. PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu wanted to tell a little secret to the guests: "You are in a country that loves French", and he continued with a little history of the French-Romanian good collaborations. His conclusion: "Bon Sommet!".

The French President, Jacques Chirac, the "spiritual guardian" of the conference, insisted on the diversity of the Francophone movement, which covers 63 states, from the Ivory Coast to Vietnam, Canada and Togo. The European Commission leader, Jose Manuel Barroso, the Canadian PM, Stephen Harper, or the Burkina-Faso President wanted to thank the Romanian hosts for their hospitality. The Laos representative (who had been involved in a minor car accident a day before) congratulated Romania and Bulgaria for their adherence to the European Union in January 2007, which started a lot of applauses.

"REVOLUTION IN PICTURES". Several minutes before, the photo-reporters have started a revolution of their own. More than 900 journalists have been accredited for this event and they all stayed in line to get one of the very few pass books (from 20 to 50) to allow them to get images from the sessions. The revolution of the photographs and cameramen caused a change in the organizers’ schedule.

Finally, all the photographs and cameramen got to all the events without having to fight for the pass books. In the meantime, the journalists had to have "a lady in pink" with them all the time, who should have escorted them during their vital trip, between the conference room and the press room. Due to obvious security reasons.

FRANCOPHONE UNIVERSITY IN BUCHAREST. In his speech in front of the important guests, Calin Popescu Tariceanu announced that the Romanian Government supports the initiation of the Central and Eastern European Francophone University in Bucharest. This would be a result of a partnership with the International Francophone Organization. The Francophone University should be "an excellence centre, a space to host performance", Tariceanu said. All the students and researchers of the Francophone world will have direct or virtual access to it. Romania has 24 universities members of the Francophone University Agency, 40,000 Romanian francophone students and 14,000 French teachers.