Between domestic politics and internationaL law assessing Romania’s non-recognition policy of Kosovo’s declaration of independence
Between domestic politics and internationaL law assessing Romania’s non-recognition policy of Kosovo’s declaration of independence

Author(s): Miruna Troncota, Dragoș Ioniță
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, International Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Published by: Институт за међународну политику и привреду
Keywords: Romania; Kosovo; international law; international politics
Summary/Abstract: The reasons that fundament the non-recognition policy combine elements of domestic politics in specific for each particular state, with a strict interpretation of international law. It is our main aim to test this assumption in the case of Romania’s official positions (as expressed by President, Prime-Minister or Minister of Foreign Affairs) and its evolution in the last 10 years. For this purpose, we use discourse analytical tools to map the main types of arguments used by Romanian political actors in order to justify their firm position, despite external pressure and the EU integration process that defined a set of tailor-made tools for Kosovo. The following chapter will analyse the case of Romania, a country that became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2007 and ever since 2008 has preserved its policy of non-recognition of Kosovo’s independence by not aligning to the EU position on this matter. We tried to focus on the main arguments presented by Romanian political and diplomatic representatives in the last decade in the public space. As an illustration of the ways politics and law are deeply entwined in contemporary international relations, the main aim of the chapter is to identify the most important patterns in justifying Romania’s position in parallel with Kosovo’s process of the EU integration that has evolved significantly in the last 10 years.

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