A problem marked by the spectre of eternity has raked the mind of the Romanians 'from the great to the small' along the existence of the modern Romanian national state, namely the economic and social catch-up with the developed countries, or, in other words 'we’ve got to catch them!', as 'we want to live like them.' This idea became an obsession for the Romanian intelligentsia ever since the time when Petrache Poenaru, a man walked through Europe before 1850, urged the Romanians to follow the parable of the advanced countries of Europe, preaching the 'condemnation to progress' of Romania. In other words, Romanians either progress, or no longer exist! Socialism has maintained the same persistent tension of recovering the gaps by a sustained economic growth and the "condemnation to development", the economic and social macro-indicators being the basis for revealing the achievements of the Romanian people under the wise guidance of... What was defining for Romania until 2007 remained after the year of Romania's accession to the European Union. In other words, much has changed, but we are the same. The mentality of a community, however diverse the individuals make up, contains some 'paradigms' or 'stereotypes' of thought. The present paper represents an attempt to objectify the 'paradigms' of Romania's integration into Europe. We are thus trying to distinguish between the 'official' achievements of the ten years of institutional, and not only geographic, presence of Romania in Europe and the resistance of frustrations accumulated over several centuries of history.