AUTHOR: Ştefan STANCIU
ROMANIA’S POSITION TOWARDS THE GREAT POWERS, REGARDING THE NAVIGATION ON THE MARITIME DANUBE, IN THE PERIOD BEFORE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Danubius, XXI, Galaţi, 2003, pp. 79-100.
Abstract
In the period before the Second World War, the navigation on the mouths of the Danube became one of the main concerns of the European countries.
Irrespective of their particular position, all the states involved showed interest for maintaining the free-navigation on the Maritime Danube.
For more security, Germany, The Soviet Union, Greece, Poland, Belgium and other countries insistently required to be accepted in the European Commission of the Danube. Great Britain, France and Italy – members of the Commission since its creation, in 1856, considered their participation as a warrant for the freedom of navigation. At its turn, Romania acquired the supreme rights on the Maritime Danube after the Agreement from Sinaia (18-th of August 1938) and the Agreement from Bucharest (1-st of March 1939) and declared that it would ensure all the technical and juridical conditions for navigation on the mouths of the Danube.
The negotiations from Galaţi, during the sessions held by the European Commission of the Danube, between 1939-1940, revealed that, above the political debates, the economical and commercial interests, the navigation on the mouths of the Danube represented a very important issue for all the Europeans.