The British Council came to Romania as early as 1938. Our country was in fact one of the first four countries in the world where the British Council set up an overseas office, along with Egypt, Portugal and Poland.

Before 1989, the British Council formed the Cultural Section of the British Embassy. It operated from a small protakabin in the Embassy's back garden and only had four staff: two British and two Romanian.

Because of the enormous demand for UK information and expertise that followed the opening of Romania, in 1990 the British Council established a separate presence in Romania in a beautiful villa.

Since 1991 we have set up partnerships with local institutions and developed our regional presence in Brasov, Cluj, Constanta, Iasi, Sibiu and Timisoara.

Our intense commitment to Romania and to its developing ties with Britain led us in 1994 to buy the building in Bucharest and to beautifully restore it starting 1998.

In 1998 we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our original opening in Romania.

In 2000 the newly restored building, complete with the English Teaching Centre was officially reopened by HRH Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and the former President of Romania, Mr Emil Constantinescu.

In 2003 we opened the new British Council Centre in Iasi.

On 18 January 2007, we inaugurated @British, the new British Council building in Bucharest, in the presence of the Chair of the British Council, Lord Kinnock.

In 2008 we celebrated 70 years of activity in Romania. Among the projects carried out for this ocassion are: Going Green Afternoon, Exaudi concert and an original graffiti and photo exhibition.