ABSTRACT
The regulation and epidemiological control operating in the main cities of Romania had important advantages for the management of sexual transmitted infections (STIs). After an epidemiological control order was issued in 1925 to 434 women in prostitution from Bucharest, only 1 percent were diagnosed with a STI, compared to the clandestine prostitution of whom 58 percent were sick. Within the context of adherence to the European Union, Romania promulgated new Penal and Civil Codes, which were legislated in 2012 and came into force in February 2014. The main public discourses on Romanian prostitutes, who have migrated to other countries, tend to the reductionist perspective of prostitution as trafficking and to the consideration of migrant sex workers as victims. Romania is a unitary state with a single centralized government. Yet, in the post-communist period, local governments were created which led to a decentralized unitary state.
