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Throughout history, international relationships have always witnessed the forming of alliances, bilateral agreements, mutual treaties, conventions, partnerships or founding organizations. All these agreements have lasted as long as all the actors involved have shared a common interest, but during conflictual periods they have been reduced to simple sheets of paper. Certainly, the very same states have, again and again, been both ‘friends’ and ‘enemies’ because in international relations “nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”1 Thus, in a world of growing interdependence and continuous change, globalization will not turn this world into a flat one, nor will it bring history to an end. On the contrary, it will generate new threats and will make differences more obvious and more striking. Moreover, the events that have taken place during the last few years clearly point this out. Starting with the 2013 Summit in Vilnius, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, in particular, have brought about major direct changes in Eastern Europe and indirect ones in Bruxelles, culminating in territorial changes in the immediate proximity of Romania. Taking into account both its significant geopolitical and geostrategic location and its membership to the European Union, Romania finds itself, as always, at a crossroads. In this context, the present paper aims at determining the role the European Union plays in Romania’s relationship with Russia.

Cooperation and trust between Russia and the European Union (EU), two of the most important international actors, have reached the lowest level since the Cold War. The main bone of contention has been the future of countries situated in Eastern Europe, in the so-called ‘in-between’/’buffer’ region. On the one hand, the EU aims at strengthening links with the six Eastern European partners – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine – by encouraging reforms and by luring them to embrace European core values. However, Russia’s counteractions have mitigated the EU’s plans towards its vicinity - as the case of Ukraine best points out. Apart from the geopolitical competition over the ‘shared’ neighbourhood, the EU-Russia relation has started to depend heavily on the energy issues further complicating the already complex background. Russia uses the energy card as tool to influence the shape of the regional context, whereas the EU responds with a superior technological advantage and a more attractive economic and political agenda. Having this a backdrop, this paper aims to underline that a clear competition between the two players exists, fomented by a fundamental ideological difference in perceiving the outside world.