Standing In - Between: Elements of Balkan Identity Underlying Romania’s Position in The EU

The paper examines the decisive impact of Romania’s Balkan heritage on its current position in the EU. Our study aims at proving that Romania’s present status among the EU countries is not only a matter of perception from the outside, but also a matter of self – perception, both being shaped by the stereotypes pertaining to the concept of ‘Balkanism’. Historically torn between the East and the West, the central and the liminal, the local and the global, the Balkan area has fostered a unique awareness of national identity, supported by a suspicious and defensive attitude towards the ‘outside’ and totally incongruent with the idea of integration. During the past years, the tension between its Balkan heritage and the integrative EU policies has generated a sense of identity crisis, due to which the Romanians find themselves “concomitantly inside and outside, actors in and audience at a play; owing to this ambiguity, they neither perform, nor watch very well”