The concept of soft power was articulated in the 1990s by the American scientist Joseph Nye. In his work, he talks about the ability of a state to get what it wants without using armed or economic force. Basically, soft power shows the ability of a state to shape, to a certain extent, the preferences of a larger or smaller group of citizens from other states by promoting values to generate favorability.
According to the Global Soft Power Index 2021, developed by Brand Finance, Romania ranks 57th out of 100 countries analyzed. Of the 27 states of the European Union, only four states are ranked lower than Romania, although Romania is the sixth country in population within the EU. A full member of the European Union for 14 years already, Romania has not yet managed to enter the Schengen zone. Moreover, it is annually subjected to the Justice Verification Mechanism (MCV) and entry into the euro seems light-years away.
Of course, the failure of Romania’s political class plays a big role in the country’s problems, and it must be admitted that the country also lacks a soft power mechanism that would push Bucharest’s agenda towards its desired goals.
In 14 years, Romania has failed to obtain the accommodation of a European agency. The great success of Romanian diplomacy at the EU level is that last year it was elected to host the European Center for Cyber Security (ECCC). However, this is not an agency. It is only an EU structure. Furthermore, if the mandate is not extended, it remains in Bucharest only until 2029.
According to an analysis made by the Panorama.ro portal, in the 56 departments and agencies within the European Commission, no Romanian holds the position of general manager and only one is a deputy general manager. The percentage of Romanian officials employed in the European Commission, and who reach middle management positions, is twice as low as the European share and that of Romanians in senior management is 12 times lower.
VoteWatch Europe, a think-tank that has been monitoring the activity of the European institutions for more than 10 years, made an index of influence in the European Parliament in 2020. According to this report, Romania is the fourth most influential country in the European Parliament. The report highlights the position of Dacian Ciolos, chairman of the Renew Europe group. This influence does not, however, help Romania in important cases.
At present, Romania’s PNRR has not yet been accepted, although it was written by the minister of finance, Cristian Ghinea, from the same party as Dacian Ciolos at the national level. The European Commission keeps rejecting him for various inaccuracies and no approval is foreseen the near future, given that a government crisis is now taking place in Bucharest.
Another major problem for Romania is the lack of communication vectors at the European level. Beyond the “stars”, including EPP vice-president and former spokesman Siegfried Muresan and Ciolos (who is the president of Renew Europe), and a few other MEPs, the rest of the Romanian delegation in Brussels does not communicate with the public. Interviews and press conferences are rare events and scarce, rather dull messages, sometimes appear on Twitter or Facebook.
At a glance, we can see that much smaller countries, like Hungary and the Czech Republic, are distinctively more active in communicating on issues of interest to the EU.
Recipes of success
The main reason why Hungary has achieved diplomatic success at the EU level over time is its membership in the so-called “Visegrad Group”, which also includes Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. These states negotiated most of the files in the package and knew how to support their policies. Every government, regardless of political color, has understood that membership of the V4 group is essential and has continued.
Hungary has been very efficient in using a cocktail of soft-power and multilateral diplomacy in order to push for Budapest’s interests. Most of it is used to legitimatize and maintain its prime minister, Viktor Orban’s, grip on power, which might not be a legitimate goal. However, it does show that a mixture of politics, diplomacy, and ethnic management can push soft power towards visible outcomes. All countries in the Visegrad group use their relationship and mutual support in order to forward their agendas.
Although Romania and Bulgaria have always been compared to each other, the two countries have not developed similar mechanisms. There is no Bulgaria-Romania working group aimed at attaining common goals within the EU.
The diaspora – Romania’s long-term advantage
It becomes obvious that, in a strictly political way, Bucharest has lost several chances to stand out at the European level. Romania has not been able to produce a political leader with a European scope. However, a somewhat unique form of soft power may emerge from Romania’s problems with economic migration. According to an infographic created by Radio Free Europe, 1.25 million Romanian speakers live in Italy, 1 million in Spain, 800,000 in France, as well as smaller communities in Belgium, Austria, Portugal, and Hungary.
Romania has a unique opportunity to turn a problem (the departure of millions of Romanians from the country) into a strategic advantage. Each community can be an unofficial ambassador for Romania as they can to represent the legitimate interests of the country. The challenge here is to organize and activate a diaspora that generally mistrusts the Romanian government and the country’s political elite. Could such a relationship be reshaped in order to promote Bucharest’s agenda? It just might.
The Romanian diaspora was very active in promoting and pushing various politicians into key positions by overwhelming the online discussion regarding elections. This kind of energy might be used in order to promote Romanian values abroad, and it’s simply a matter of will on both sides – politicians must have the will to come up with a believable agenda and plan; the diaspora must have the will to still support their country publicly in those endeavors, which is a deed with its own complexities, given the state of European nationalism).