About Romania, sometimes known as Dracula's residence, the idilical image is vehiculated, of a restarted country with peasants wearing national costumes and ploughing the lands returned in their possession after December 1989, pushing a plough pulled by horses or ores. In reality, Romania is a country with an earnest industry, though by now not properly working or using old technologies. More than one percent of the Romanian inhabitants are studying in high schools and I dare appreciate that more than a quarter of the people in my country understand a foreign language. After the events occurred in Romania in 1989, the civil society made its option for democracy, market economy and integration in the European structures. The elections to take place this year will, by no means, change this option clearly expressed not only by political factors but also by all the opinion polls performed during this period. The principle of the free circulation of persons, goods, services and capitals obviously demands a quality guarantee, the non-destructive control as an essential branch of the quality control playing an important part, especially in the countries where, like in Romania, ?he development has not reached yet the demanded levels. Considering this, appears as necessary the harmonization of the methods of NDT personnel training and certification schemes, as well as of the methods for NDT laboratories accreditation. The birth of the private property led to the appearance of NDT private companies, as well as to the possibility of founding private schools having as their objective the personnel training in this field of activity. Obviously, a severe analysis of the present situation is necessary. The first non-destructive controls were performed in Romania in 1910, when the Inspection Body for Pressure Vessels, Boilers and Hoisting Units Control was founded. This state body understood the importance of the non-destructive control of materials and welded joints for ensuring the safety in the exploitation of the pressure installations and hoisting units. The inspection body created its own laboratories playing a double part: testing of the new non-destructive control methods and techniques and the specific equipments, elaboration of the specifically instructions and prescriptions valid in the field of activity of the Inspecting Body, on the one side, and checking the activity of the corresponding laboratories from different companies and certifying the personnel working in NDT. For instance, the first prescriptions for the industrial radiography were elaborated in 1959.
