Romania–Serbia relations

The Romania-Serbia relations refer to the bilateral, historic and cultural relations between Romania and the Republic of Serbia. The two countries share a 546,4 kms. long border, both being located in Eastern Europe. The two countries share a long history, elements of culture and geography.

Unofficial relations were established during the first half of the 19th century, when both countries were under Ottoman suzerainty. Officially, they established diplomatic relations of April 26, 1879, one year after both countries achieved full independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Both countries are members of the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Craiova Group. Relations between the two nations are close, both politically and between peoples.

History

Pre-independence relations

The Principality of Serbia opened its first diplomatic mission in Wallachia in March, 1836, when it opened the Princely-Serbian Diplomatic Agency in Bucharest. However, 27 years later, in February, 1863, the first official diplomatic agency, with Kosta Magazinović as the first diplomatic agent, was opened. One month later, the first Romanian diplomatic agency was opened in Belgrade, on March 12/24, with Teodor Calimachi as the first diplomatic agent.

At the time, both Romania and Serbia were under Ottoman suzerainty, and were fighting for their independence. As the Great Eastern Crisis was reopened when the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire went to war in 1877, a coalition supporting the Russians was formed by Bulgaria, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia. The latter three countries were granted independence following the Treaty of Berlin, signed on July 13, 1878.^[1]

Post-independence relations

In 1879, the diplomatic agencies in Belgrade and Bucharest became legations, and the diplomatic agents became resident ministers. Lascăr Catargiu became the first resident minister of Romania in Serbia, and Milan A. Petronijević became the first resident minister of Serbia in Romania. Both Romania and Serbia became kingdoms, in 1881 and 1882, respectively, and their diplomatic representatives became "extraordinary envoy and plenipotentiary ministers". Officially, the legations from Belgrade and Bucharest became embassies in 1939.^[2]

Romania and Serbia fought together in the Second Balkan War of 1913, against Bulgaria. One year later, the First World War began when Austro-Hungary invaded Serbia due to the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, an ethnic Serb. Despite Romania technically being part of the Central Powers, it refused to take part in the war, and, in 1916, joined the Entente, the same alliance Serbia was a part of. After the Entente won the war, both Romania and Serbia, alongside the newly formed Czechoslovakia, went at war with Hungary, and, at the end, as the victorious side, annexed parts of it. Because of this, the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formed the Little Entente in 1921. Moreover, in 1934, the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, alongside the Second Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Turkey formed the Balkan Pact to avoid the revisionist politics of Bulgaria.^[3]

During the Second World War, Romania was led to become an Axis member, which made the country recognize the Independent State of Croatia after Yugoslavia's dismantle by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. This led to a diplomatic breakup of relations. Moreover, calls for Romania to annex parts of Yugoslavia, namely the ethnic Romanian villages in Morava and Danube banovinas, were made. Romania refused to annex any parts of Yugoslavia and relations were eventually reestablished after the proclamation of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the war ended.

The Soviet Army occupation of Romania at the end of the war led to the creation of People's Republic of Romania, a socialist satellite state of the Soviet Union. Understanding the nature of European geopolitics at the time, including the Tito-Stalin split, Romania and Yugoslavia had tense relations over the course of the first postwar years. After Romania broke up from the Soviet sphere of influence and became fully independent, relations were retaken and became really close, Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu and Yugoslav leader Josif Broz Tito meeting more than twenty times until Tito's death in 1980. Tito-Ceaușescu cooperation led to the construction of the Iron Gates I and II Hydroelectric Power Stations, the biggest dams over the Danube and some of the biggest in Europe.

Yugoslavia also became the biggest host of Romanian refugees during the last decade of communism in Romania, when it became unbearable due to Ceaușescu's ambitions and rules. As the communism regime prohibited citizens of leaving the country, tens of thousands, if not even hundreds, of Romanian citizens from all across the country tried to evade Romania by illegally swimming or rowing across the Danube river into Yugoslavia, where they would be granted asylum and freedom to leave towards Western Europe, North America or Australia. Dozens of people died during their attempt.

Modern relations

Modern relations between Romania and Serbia began right after the Romanian Revolution and the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars. In the last decade of the 20th century, relations between the two countries were mostly affected after Romania decided to join the international community and enforced the embargo UN imposed over Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War, leading to a political rupture of the good historical relations between the two countries.

This, inadvertently, led to one of the biggest illegal trafficking network in Europe at the time. As the embargo prevented Yugoslavia from purchasing fuel, Romanian citizens, impoverished by the internal crisis inadvertently caused by the fall of the communist regime, began illegally crossing the Danube in order to sell petrol, diesel and other forms of fuel to their Serbian neighbours. During a two years period, between 1993 and 1995, a lot of Romanians in the villages on the Danube shore got rich by illegal means, helping their Serbian counterparts. Any form of gas in Yugoslavia was around five times more expensive than in Romania. The network abruptly shut down in 1995, and it is believed that, despite their position, the Romanian government involved in it. Around ten to twenty people were killed during those years, either by the Romanian border guards or other smugglers.^[4]

Politic relations got even worse during the late years of the same decade, when Romania, on its way of accession to NATO, allowed NATO planes to use Romanian airspace in order to strike targets in Serbia. Supporting NATO during the Yugoslav Wars got Romania's position as an official NATO member in 2004. However, civilians continued showing support to Serbia, most Romanian citizens not agreeing with their government position.^[5]

After the end of the Yugoslav Wars, relations gradually improved, with Romania supporting Serbia's integration with the international community. Nowadays, symbolizing the good relations between Romania and Serbia, there is in the former a sentence that says "Romania only has two friends: the Black Sea and Serbia". However, this phrase and the state of the relations between both has been disturbed by the Romanians in the Timok Valley in Serbia, where they are known in Serbian as "Vlachs", claiming a separate ethnic identity from the Romanians.^[6] ^[7]

Romania-Kosovo relations

Relations between Romania and the Republic of Kosovo are non-existent as of 2024. Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia caused debates and outrage in Romania, as the country strongly opposes any kind of self-determination and refuses to acknowledge the sovereignity of Kosovo. Romania is among the five countries part of the European Union who does not recognize Kosovo, and one of the seven countries boycotting Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe in 2023.

On 18 February 2008, the very next day after Kosovo's secession from Serbia, a vote in the Parliament of Romania determined their position regarding Kosovo. The results were strongly against any recognition, with 357 ”No” votes and only 27 ”Yes” votes. Furthermore, both the president Traian Băsescu and prime minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu were opposed and announced their support for Serbia's territorial integrity. A potential change emerged during the leadership of Victor Ponta, prime-minister of Romania between 2012 and 2015, who stated that ”Romania must follow EU's lead" after the European Union urged Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain to reconsider their decisions regarding Kosovo. However, after his resignation, the Government of Romania never addressed a change in recognition.^[8]^[9]^[10]

A recent example for the bitterness of the relations is a football match between the two national football teams in 2023. Their two national teams were drawn into the same group for the qualifiers to the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, and during the second-leg match between the teams at Arena Națională in Bucharest, an extremist fan faction of the Romanian side, named ”Uniți Sub Tricolor” (”United Under Tricolour” in Romanian) displayed two banners quoting ”Basarabia e România” (”Bessarabia is Romania” in Romanian) and ”Kosovo je Srbija” (”Kosovo is Serbia” in Serbian) and began shouting pro-Serbia chants. The match was eventually interrupted in the 18th minute for almost an hour, after a Romanian fan threw a torch on the pitch and the Kosovar side left the pitch in protest. While negociations were taking place, the Romanian gendarmerie removed the racist banners and tried to solve the issues. Romania eventually won the match 2-0, coming closer to the eventual qualification to UEFA Euro 2024. After the match, the Football Federation of Kosovo filed a report against the Romanian Football Federation to UEFA, demanding that Kosovo be awarded a 3-0 victory because of the events. The complaint was denied but the Romanian Football Federation was fined 52,000 Euros and ordered to play its next home match (against Andorra) without fans.^[11] ^[12]^[13]

Romania maintains a liaison office in Pristina, but not an embassy.

While Romania and Serbia do have good relations, the main reason of Romania's position is the Székely Land problem. "Székely Land" is the name of a region in Romania where the majority is composed of ethnic Hungarians and Székelys. Therefore, acknowledging the independence of Kosovo may lead Székely Land to seek for autonomy or even independence, with nationalist figures such as Corneliu Vadim Tudor claiming their intention is to instantly be absorbed into neighbouring Hungary, country that used to rule the region for hundreds of years. During the February 2008 vote, the results showed members of the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR, which actively supports Székely Land's autonomy within Romania, were responsible for most "Yes" votes. Hungary recognized Kosovo's independence on March 19 of the same year. ^[14]

Diplomatic missions

Romania is represented in Serbia by its embassy in Belgrade and the two consulate-generals, in Vršac and Zaječar.

Serbia is represented in Romania by its embassy in Bucharest and the consulate-general in Timișoara.

Memberships

Both Romania and Serbia are members of the:

Romania's position in Serbia's accession to the European Union

Serbia borders four European Union member states while not being itself a member state. Out of 1343.4 kilometers of border, 546.4 are of shared border with Romania, which is considered to be one of Serbia's key allies in its European Union integration path.^[16]

Serbia officially applied for European Union membership on December 22, 2009, and has become an official candidate on March 1, 2012. Before this, Romania unsuccessfully tried to veto Serbia on receiving the candidate status, quoting the lack of minority rights for the Romanian minority in Serbia. However, ever since then, Romania intensively intervened in Serbia's accession by sending aid in forms of financial and technical means to their Serbian counterparts.^[17]

Romania has not recognized Kosovo's independence from Serbia despite European Union's general support for Kosovo's self determination. In order for Serbia to become a European Union member state, it is considered that it should recognize Kosovo's legitimacy, thing that was completely unacceptable for any Serbian government ever since Kosovo's declaration of independence or since Serbia applied for European Union membership. Kosovo itself tries to become a European Union member state but opposition from some European Union member states, as well as its disputed status, is making this very hard. Both Serbia and Romania are firm with their positions regarding Kosovo, thus making Serbia's accession to the European Union a harder mission. The 35th chapter of the negotiations between Serbia and the European Union regard the relations with Kosovo, and while some progress has been made, neither Belgrade's or Pristina's positions are clear.

However, despite any of those reasons, with the progress that has been made, Serbia is widely believed to be the next country to join the European Union (maybe in the same time as Montenegro), somewhere between 2025 and 2030 (between 12 and 17 years since the last country, Croatia, joined the European Union).

Serbs of Romania

Ethnic Serbs are a recognized minority in Romania, with around 18,000 Serbs living in Romania, or around 0,1% of the total population. Most of them live in the counties of Arad, Caraș-Severin, Mehedinți and Timiș, located on the Serbian border. Notable examples of Serbian villages in Romania are Șvinița in Mehedinți county, with a 90% ethnic Serbian population, and Socol in Caraș-Severin county, with 50%.

Ethnic Serbs in Romania have the right to study up to high school and take the baccalaureate exam in their native language. One seat in the Chamber of Deputies is reserved for the ethnic Serb minority. Multiple Serbian orthodox churches are scattered through the Romanian part of Banat.

Romanians of Serbia

Ethnic Romanians are also a recognized minority in Serbia, with around 23,000 Romanians living in Serbia, together with an additional 21,000 so-called "Vlachs", which refer to the ethnic Romanian groups living south of the Danube. In total, Romanians and Vlachs account for around 0,6% of Serbia's total population, most of them living in villages and towns on the Romanian border, such as Mali Žam or Grebenac. Major cities of Serbia, such as Bor, Novi Sad, Vršac, Zaječar or Zrenjanin, also host numerous Romanians. Romanian language is an official language of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina. Multiple Romanian orthodox churches are also scattered through Serbia, including the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Vršac.

Unlike in Romania, ethnic Romanians in Serbia do not have the right to study in their native language, and are not represented politically. This has led to brief diplomatic skirmishes between the two countries, including Romania's veto on Serbia's admission as a candidate state of the European Union. Furthermore, a scandal regarding the ethnic Vlachs in the Timok river valley is ongoing.