== poverty == 

 I'm not Romanian, neither an expert on Romanian society, so I'm not sure, but the poverty rate for me doesn't seem so unrealistic. I mean, the poverty rate of 8% in Hungary is from 1993, which is right in the first phase of a major socioeconomic crisis, and in terms of poverty it was rather "just" the beginning. Reportedly the worst years in terms of the emerging extreme poverty were 1993-1996, due to government policies and general economical collapse. For example in 1992 the number of active earners was 4,1777 million in 1993 it was 3,8884 million, and in 1997 3,657 million - in the same period the number of people who were registered as unemployed actually fell from 663000 to 477500. So I think it seems quite clear that the percentage of people living under the poverty level increased significantly from 1993 to 1997, and didn't change significantly since then. Actually, according to recent sociological research around 8% of Hungarians live in total, extreme poverty, which means almost complete segregation from the labour market and quite simply being unable obtaining enough food, normal housing etc.  
 The total percentage of people living under the subsistence level (circa half of the median income) is actually 25-30%.  
 This is Hungary, where the general macroeconomic situation is said to be much more favourable than in Romania, with the GDP/capita twice as high (13900$ by PPP in 2003) and the Gini-index 6,7 percent lower. 
 Of course, I don't know how the poverty level is calculated in Romania, but if it's done the same way than in Hungary (where it is 20-30% of the pop. below it) it is possible that it is as high as that.  
 Again, I don't really know the situation in Romania, so I can easily be wrong.