ABSTRACT
On 1 January 2007, Romania joined the European Union. The process started in 1995 when the Romanian Government submitted the official accession request. One of the first advantages of membership was making travel conditions within the EU more flexible for Romanian citizens, a process that started before the actual accession. Despite the Framework Decision and the inclusion of the principle in national laws, the transfer of Romanian prisoners presents several peculiarities, especially from the perspective of fulfilling one of the main objectives of the decision, namely, to facilitate the social rehabilitation of the convicted person. The enlargement of the European Union to include countries from the former Socialist bloc and the free movement of people within the EU raised many challenges as large number of people from the eastern part of the EU settled in Western European countries.
