It has been proposed that Romania withdraw from the European Union (EU), this sometimes being known as Roexit or Romexit (with both being portmanteaus of "Romania" and "exit").

History

In 2018, Daniel Dragomir, suggested in Facebook that Romania should leave the European Union (EU). Dragomir, a nationalist against the anti-corruption policies of the country and a former Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) member, stated that EU membership was affecting Romanian national sovereignty and that Brussels was "robbing from us". This statement has been proven to be false, as Romania then received more money than it gave to the EU. He said this after

Frans Timmermans Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diploma ...

, Vice-President of the European Commission, criticized the justice reforms that were then taking place in Romania. Dragomir published a list of 10 reasons why the country should leave the EU. Some

political parties in Romania This article lists political parties in Romania. Romania has a democratic multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which a political party does not often have the chance of gaining parliamentary majority alone, and, thus, parties ...

advocate the proposal as well. An example is

Noua Dreaptă ''Noua Dreaptă'' ( en, The New Right) is an ultranationalist, far-right organization in Romania and Moldova, founded in 2000. The party claims to be the successor to the far-right Iron Guard, with its aesthetics and ideology being directly i ...

, a

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

party, opposes Romanian presence in the EU and NATO. However, some pro-EU politicians like

Corina Crețu Corina Crețu (born June 24, 1967 in Bucharest) is a Romanian politician and a former European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. Crețu is a member of the Romanian PRO Romania and Member of the European Parliament (sitting with the Progre ...

, a former European Commissioner for Regional Policy, criticized the idea, calling it a "luxury" and listing several moments in which the EU has helped the country.

Victor Negrescu Victor Negrescu (born 17 August 1985) is a Romanian politician of the Social Democratic Party. He is a Member of European Parliament and he was Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Romania between 2017 and 2018. Since 2007, ...

, the then Romanian Minister Delegate for European Affairs, said the idea is not taken into account at political level in the country and that it has only been created to "stir controversy". He instead advocated for the integration of Romania in European politics. In December 2020, the soft

Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek reform ...

party Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), which has been described as far-right, entered the

Romanian Parliament The Parliament of Romania ( ro, Parlamentul României) is the national bicameral legislature of Romania, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies ( ro, Camera Deputaților) and the Senate ( ro, Senat). It meets at the Palace of the Parliament in Bu ...

for the first time and became the 4th largest party in the country, although it is unclear whether it supports leaving the EU or not. In 2021, the

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă (born 13 November 1975 in Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian lawyer and far-right politician. She gained notorious popularity in 2020 after she published several messages against COVID-19 restriction measures on social m ...

, a former AUR member then affiliated with the Romanian Nationhood Party (PNR), expressed her support for a Romanian withdrawal from the EU. Furthermore, some examples of non-politicians supporting this include Romanian actor , who expressed his support for the withdrawal of Romania from the EU in 2022.

Public opinion

Euroscepticism is generally not very popular among Romanians. According to a poll from 2015, 65.6% of Romanians thought that joining the EU had been beneficial for their country. This represented a very notable change compared to a 2013 poll; only 35% saw the EU as beneficial. Furthermore, 58% agreed with the adoption of the euro in 2015 compared to 35% in 2013. Later, in a poll conducted in 2022, 71.1% of respondents said they would not vote to leave the EU compared with 25.2% who would, which again represented an increase of support to the EU among Romanians.

References

External links

* {{Withdrawal from the European Union Proposals in Romania Portmanteaus Romania and the European Union Withdrawal from the European Union Euroscepticism in Romania Public policy proposals