With just under three weeks until the EU elections, our road trip arrives in Romania, where Euronews reporters Damon Embling and Gabor Tanacs talk to local people about their concerns and invite them to share their opinions on our red sofa in the heart of Bucharest.
Romania joined the European Union in 2007, but many of its longstanding issues are yet to be resolved.
A former Communist country, it has seen its economy transformed since joining the EU with unemployment at an all-time low. However, income inequalities are still very visible, with around a third of the population living in poverty and infrastructure such as road networks still poor. Another major issue for this country with its rapidly ageing population is the number of young people emigrating in search of better salaries elsewhere in Europe.
Romania is also under scrutiny over judicial independence. Its efforts to tackle corruption are in the spotlight now more than ever before as a referendum is set to take place around the same time as the EU elections in May. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis is said to be trying to stop new legislation going through from the ruling Social Democrats, which some believe is designed to stop graft cases.
The European Commission has been closely following the progress in cases of corruption in Romania, praising the work of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), despite intense pressure from the country's justice minister to dismiss its top anti-corruption prosecutor.
Watch the latest Road Trip Europe report from Bucharest in the player above
