Between the 25th and the 29th of September, 2006, Romania becomes the host of the 11th Summit of the state and government leaders of the countries which are part of International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF). The Francophonie Summit represents, through size and importance, the most complex international meeting ever to be organised by Romania. In order to mark this event, Romfilatelia, the company specialize in editing and trading Romanian postage stamps, introduces into circulation the postage stamp issue The 11th Edition of the high level Conference of the Francophonie - Bucharest 2006.
The Francophonie is the political and cultural assembly of the peoples that use the French language regularly. The term “francophonie” first appeared in 1880, when the geographer Onesime Reclus had used it to define the groups of people and countries that were using French in various circumstances. The International Day of Francophonie is celeberated every year on 20th March, when the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT) was established. The initiators of the constitution of the francophone community are: Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal), Habib Bourghiba (Tunisia) and Hamani Diori (Niger).
The cooperation programme between the states belonging to this community has five primary directions:
1) cultural and linguistic diversity;
2) peace, democracy and justice;
3) education, training, youth;
4) development and solidarity;
5) involvement of the francophonie in the information society.
Presently, the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) is made of 63 states from all the continents: 53 member states and 10 observer states. In 1993 Romania became a full member of the Organisation and 1998, the Ministerial Conference of the Francophonie took place in Bucharest, where the name of the “International Organisation of La Francophonie” was adopted. During the last years, Romania has asserted itself as the regional leader of Francophonie. It’s also worth mentioning that it is the first time when a Conference like this takes place in a country other than France. The theme of the Bucharest Conference is: Information technology in education.
The images illustrated on the issued stamp and on the perforated souvenir sheet reproduce a statuette belonging to the Neolithic period, known as “The Thinker of Hamangia”. The face values of the issued stamp and of the stamp of the perforated souvenir sheet are of Lei 1.20 and Lei 5.60 respectively.
