The largest foreign policy chapter can be found in the electoral platform of the National Liberal Party (PNL) candidate Crin Antonescu. In contrast to the programmes of candidates Traian Basescu, Mircea Geoana, Sorin Oprescu or Kelemen Hunor, featuring only the foreign policy directions in general, Crin Antonescu’s programme details the type of relations Romania should promote with various international players.
Traian Basescu would like Romania to play an active role in the Black Sea zone, also used as a tool for backing up the Republic of Moldova’s European Union aspirations. In his turn, Mircea Geoana, candidate of the Social Democratic Party (P SD), says in his electoral platform that the aim of the Black Sea cooperation should go beyond the form without substance and that a series of concrete steps, as gaining access on new markets, must be made.
In the opinion of Crin Antonescu the Black Sea should remain a specific strategic interest zone, given its geographical position, as well as due to the role it can play in the oil and gas transport and the energy resources.
Referring to the relations between Romania and the Republic of Moldova, both Traian Basescu and Mircea Geoana believe that Romania’s role is to back up Republic of Moldova’s aspiration to enter the EU. Independent candidate Sorin Oprescu says that he is going to respect the Republic of Moldova’s wish to decide upon its internal affairs, “in the sense that, as they will decide, so be it”. Crin Antonescu pleads, in his turn, for a normalization of the relations with Republic of Moldova, in the context of an “unacceptable deterioration of these relations”.
Romanian entrance into the Schengen Space in 2011, Romanians’ free movement on the EU territory, as well as a higher capacity of absorption of the European funds represent the main Romania’s goals as a EU member state, according to Traian Basescu’s electoral programme. PSD candidate Mircea Geoana maintains that Romania must be part of the European family, not only by name and to this end to adhere to the euro zone by 2014. Romania’s integration into the Schengen Space is also a desideratum expressed in the electoral programme by UDMR candidate Kelemen Hunor.
Crin Antonescu wishes Romania to become a pillar for the EU energy security through the diversification of the supply sources and the inter-connection of the energy and natural gas networks. PNL candidate’s electoral programme also expresses support for a federal Europe, for the process of consolidation and deepening of the European integration, as well as for the consolidation of the European institutions legitimacy.
As for the relation type between Romania and the European Union, Crin Antonescu wants Romania to become a member with personality in the Union which, in his view, supposes the “abandonment of a certain type of mimicry, characteristic for our attitude when reported to the big issues in debate”.
Both Mircea Geoana and Crin Antonescu, as well as the independent candidate Sorin Oprescu, say in their programmes that they are in favor of a normalization of relations with Russia. Mircea Geoana says that, in the context in which Russia is the largest Europe’s energy supplier, Romania should continue to promote “with all its forces” the development of Nabucco project and Romania’s participation in the outlining of the European energy policy towards Central Asia, where there are significant energy resources.
Crin Antonescu also considers that the “political and institutional dimension of the rapports between Romania and Russia should reflect our interest in an important geo-strategic player in the zone. Relations with Russia had unacceptable fluctuation periods, also reflecting a lack of capacity of the institutional factors to perceive the strategic importance of the good relations with our neighbor in the East”.
PNL candidate also stresses that certain elements of collective psychology history acted as a disturbing factor in the two states’ relations lately and that these historical memory remnants have been exploited at the domestic policy level.
As regards relations with the United States of America, Mircea Geoana and Sorin Oprescu affirmed their wish to see Romania fostering a good cooperation with the USA and NATO, whereas Traian Basescu says that the consolidation of partnerships with the USA and France play an excellent role in the promotion of Romania’s economic interests.
As President of Romania, PNL candidate wants to act for casting anew the partnership with the USA, maintaining that when the bilateral Strategic Partnership between the USA and Romania was launched, in July 1997, Romania was aspiring to become both NATO and an European Union member state.
The sole reference to the US visa system applied to Romanians is contained by Crin Antonescu’s programme, who says that the main step in the process of the re-establishment of the partnership with the USA is represented by the clarification of the US entry visas issue.
Candidate of the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor, in his turn, is the only one who reminds the US project of placing a missile shield in Romania. Kelemen Hunor says that Romania’s involvement in the US missile shield project will contribute to the strengthening of Europe’s security.
Greater Romania Party (PRM) candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor is the only one who reminds Romania’s relations with the international financial institutions, with accent on the relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). To this end, Vadim Tudor underscored in his candidacy launching speech that he was going to renounce the IMF loans, motivating that the money from this institution anyway return abroad, and does not represent a solution to the current economic crisis.
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