IN LINE WITH BRUSSELS. ROMANIAN AND BULGARIAN POSITION ON THE UKRAINIAN CRISIS

Abstract

The Ukrainian crisis has been a test for the alignment of Romania and Bulgaria with the EU on the background of the Union’s new foreign policy instruments as redesigned by the Lisbon Treaty. This paper aims to present the positions of Bulgaria and Romania towards the events of 2013-2015 in Ukraine. Our research target is to identify the driving forces that shaped these positions, to analyse and describe the main foreign policy goals and actions of Bucharest and Sofia regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and to compare the attitude of these two countries toward the Ukrainian crisis. The paper analyses first the Romanian and the Bulgarian perspectives on the dramatic events in Ukraine in the first half of 2014. The positions of the two countries are further placed in the wider international context of the Ukrainian crisis – the UN resolutions, the EU sanctions against Russia, NATO activities, and the security in the Black Sea region. In the third part Romania and Bulgaria are viewed as a “playground” for the competing narratives and propaganda in regards to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. We also examine the economic impact of the crisis on the two Balkan countries, as well as the efforts of both Bucharest and Sofia to protect their respective minorities in Ukraine. In conclusion, we summarize the results of our research and explain how the Ukrainian crisis has reshaped the foreign policy debates in Romania and Bulgaria.