European Identity Challenged. Romanian Politicians Discussing Free Movement from the Perspective of Kinship-based Morality

Abstract

In this article, I will analyse how Romanian Presidents and Prime Ministers from 2004 to 2014 discussed the right to free movement in terms of the Romanian state and identity. The Romanian statements were collected fr om the official website of the Presiden t of Romania, from the Prime M inister’s website as well from the archi ves of the Romanian Government. I have divided the arguments into duty - based and result - based moral approaches to free movement, while focusing especially on identity - related questions o f free movement. The analysis reveals that the right to free movement was discussed in connection with the Romanian community, and the same right should apply to Moldovan citizens, who are of the same ethnic origin and have the same official language. Roma nia has also granted Romanian citizenship for many Moldovans, thus granting them the right to free movement in the European Union. I will first introduce the material and the theoretical framework used in the analysis, and present the background of my doct oral dissertation from which the results have been drawn. The empirical part of the article will be divided in two parts, the former considering the duty - based community feelings between Romanians and Moldovans in terms of free movement, while the latter d iscusses solidarity - related comments about free movement. Finally, I will draw my conclusions relying on the sections concerning kinship - based questions related to free movement in the Romanian discourse. I will argue that there was not much kinship felt t owards the European Union in the free movement discourse, but Romania and Moldova were considered to consist of the same people, and free movement should thus be granted to Moldovans, too. To a certain extent, this has also occurred in granting the citizen ship to many Moldovan citizens.