Action 2012 ( ro, Acțiunea 2012), officially Unionist Platform Action 2012 ( ro, Platforma Unionistă Acțiunea 2012, link=no) or Civic Platform Action 2012 (), is a coalition of

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s striving for the

unification of Moldova and Romania The unification of Moldova and Romania is a Greater Romania, popular concept in the two countries that began in the late 1980s, during the Revolutions of 1989. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the independence of Moldova in 1991 further co ...

operating in both

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

and

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. It was established on 17 April 2011, bringing together more than 30 unionist NGOs from Romania, Moldova, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and several other

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an countries. Action 2012 takes its name from the year 2012, which marked the 200th anniversary of the annexation of

Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...

by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

away from the

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

principality of

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

. The coalition was founded by

George Simion George Nicolae Simion (born 21 September 1986 in Focșani, Romania) is a Romanian right-wing to far-right politician and civic activist. He is the president of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a political party in Romania that g ...

, then a Romanian

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

who later became a

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. Action 2012 has undertaken a large number of activities and initiatives to support the unification of Moldova and Romania. On 10 February 2015, by the initiative of Action 2012, the Friends of the Union Parliamentary Group () was created. This entity sought dialogue between parliamentarians of all Romanian parties to ensure the approval of projects between Moldova and Romania and in support of

Romanian diaspora The Romanian diaspora is the ethnically Romanian population outside Romania and Moldova. The concept does not usually include the ethnic Romanians who live as natives in nearby states, chiefly those Romanians who live in Ukraine, Hungary, Serbi ...

. As of 2017, over 100 members of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

and the

Senate of Romania ) is the upper house in the bicameral Parliament of Romania. It has 136 seats (before the 2016 Romanian legislative election the total number of elected representatives was 176), to which members are elected by direct popular vote using party-l ...

, which form the

Parliament of Romania The Parliament of Romania ( ro, Parlamentul României) is the national bicameral legislature of Romania, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies ( ro, Camera Deputaților) and the Senate ( ro, Senat). It meets at the Palace of the Parliament i ...

, were members of the group. Furthermore, in 2016, Action 2012 coordinated the project Know Your Country (), which aimed to take 100,000

Moldovans Moldovans, sometimes referred to as Moldavians ( ro, moldoveni , Moldovan Cyrillic: молдовень), are a Romance-speaking ethnic group and the largest ethnic group of the Republic of Moldova (75.1% of the population as of 2014) and a sign ...

on trips to Romania in the summer and fall of that year. A similar project, Know Your Brothers (), was established by Action 2012 in 2019. This program organized trips from Romania to Moldova. In 2018, Action 2012 was involved in the organization of the

Centenary March The Centenary March ( ro, Marșul Centenarului) or Centenary March of the Great Union ( ro, Marșul Centenarului Marii Uniri) was a civic demonstration organized by George Simion and various non-governmental organizations from Romania and Moldova ...

, a march that intended to cover starting in

Alba Iulia Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...

in Romania on 1 July and ending in

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the ...

in Moldova on 1 September. Action 2012 also participated on the

2015–2016 protests in Moldova Starting in the spring of 2015, Moldova experienced large-scale protests amid a worsening economic situation and corruption scandals. The protests gained momentum in September, when up to 100,000 people demonstrated in the largest protest since Mo ...

, organizing pro-unification rallies. During these protests, on 14 May 2015, Simion was expelled from Moldova and banned from entering the country for 5 years for "endangering national security" through his activities; the Romanian embassy in Chișinău asked the Moldovan authorities for explanations on this decision. His ban was lifted on 18 September, although he received another one in 2016 and two others in 2018.

References

External links

* {{Unification of Moldova and Romania 2011 establishments in Romania 2011 establishments in Moldova Romanian nationalism Romanian nationalism in Moldova