Daily: Romania determined to block Serbia's candidate bid

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.

From Wiki: Following Roman withdrawal from the province of Dacia at the end of the 3rd century, the name of the Roman region was changed to Dacia Aureliana, and (later Dacia Ripensis) spread over most of what is now called Serbia and Bulgaria, and an undetermined number of Romanized Dacians (Carpi) were settled there. OK, this is where I could give a crap on who Vlachs are. Jesus, is Serbia responsible for every minority that ever existed on the former Yugoslavia? Where exactly is Vlachville? Is it in Serbia proper, or Vojvodina? I suggest to Serbia, have a "Come and take your bullshit minority territory day". Have all the ethnic minorities take their neighborhoods, and get the F out of Serbia. Who needs these dead weights? Was Romania complaining when Belgrade was paying for all the bills VLACHs were incurring in Serbia before today? F all of you nationalists, and a super F to the EU for failing to bring countries together in your Union. EU, you are a failure.

Serbia should respect the rights of the Romanian minority.

Denying minoritities rights is business as usual in prejudiced and xenophobic Serbia. As for Romania, they win today's award for the biggest hypocrite. They see how Serbia treat the Vlachs, now multiply that by 100 fold and you will begin to understand how Serbia treats Albanians. Romania should stop using the Hungarian minority as an excuse and acknowledge the historically good relations it has had with Albania by recognizing KOSOVA. Not to mention it is ethically and morally the right thing to do. Wake up ROMANIA.

Does this mean that they know that Germany will be putting a hold on Serbia's candidate status? Looks like they didn't want to be solely responsible, but if candidacy is going to be held up anyway, this is the time to make their point. What it's all about: http://www.romaniuitati.eu/content/view/131/45/

Haha... Leaving aside if I think this is justified or not... But I will lough into everybodys face who says that smaller member states loose power if they join the EU... ^^

Romanians aren't stupid. They know now's the time to punish Serbia. This is Romania's last chance to do something about its citizens in Serbia.

Cool. I love the Romanians. Please keep Serbia out of the EU freak show. I love the Vlachs, whoever they are. Give them half of Serbia, but just keep us out of the EU. My next vacation will be in Vlachovia, Serbia.

*unnamed sources*

Who knows if this is real or not.

How are the Serbs not caring for the vlachs?

Romania, Thank you for helping keep Serbia out of EU. I know its not easy to except that Romanians from Serbia are very proud to be Serbian.And more hardcore then most Serbs. I know Romaians from Romania who always look up to Serbia. The rest is politic's. Who knows maybe the opposition in Serbia paid Romania to bloc Serbia's bid. Romania needs money real bad today!!

Haha... Leaving aside if I think this is justified or not... But I will lough into everybodys face who says that smaller member states loose power if they join the EU... ^^
(Observer, 23 February 2012, 22:50)

Oh yes, small states have such great power. Romania does this on the day Germany, who will never let Serbia into the EU, shows up to say they support their entry. Next time the Germans will have some other tiny and insignificant state do it. The bottom line will always be the same. Serbs had better get over any notion of entering the EU.

From Wiki: Following Roman withdrawal from the province of Dacia at the end of the 3rd century, the name of the Roman region was changed to Dacia Aureliana, and (later Dacia Ripensis) spread over most of what is now called Serbia and Bulgaria, and an undetermined number of Romanized Dacians (Carpi) were settled there. OK, this is where I could give a crap on who Vlachs are. Jesus, is Serbia responsible for every minority that ever existed on the former Yugoslavia? Where exactly is Vlachville? Is it in Serbia proper, or Vojvodina? I suggest to Serbia, have a "Come and take your bullshit minority territory day". Have all the ethnic minorities take their neighborhoods, and get the F out of Serbia. Who needs these dead weights? Was Romania complaining when Belgrade was paying for all the bills VLACHs were incurring in Serbia before today? F all of you nationalists, and a super F to the EU for failing to bring countries together in your Union. EU, you are a failure.
(winston, 23 February 2012, 23:28)

Winston how vulgar of you to curse all the minorities in Serbia, you se Serbia is deffending all Minorities in Kosovo but they have issues with Romas and Vlachs in their own country :) it looks like to pay the piper for Serbia and this si to become candidate just think what has to be done to get Full Membership :).

Rumania to Serbia give them Athasari plan to my Vlachs in Serbia or I will recognize Kosovo .... Vuk oh no please no ... :)

Mircea, we respect Romanian rights very well. In fact, the Romanian language is one of the official languages in Vojvodina.

I think that what is going on is that the Romanians want the vlachs to be declared Romanians? I dunno.

Ok, I'll admit that's kind of funny. If this is true, this should be a no brainer. Serbs and Romanians have a strong relationship with each other, so this shouldn't be a problem.

This is pure propagnada.. No one in Serbia even knows who these people are.. I guess the Serbs who live in fear today in Kosovo non-stop while albanian thugs in Preserve just renamed a street after a terrorist shows how "evil" the serbs are..

Long live European Union, there is nothing better in the Solar System than European Union. If that is the price, every Serb shold rather kill their love or wife than to miss the chance to join European Union. We can't get enough of European Union, it's flying high like MALÉV airplanes.

"Daily: Romania determined to block Serbia's candidate bid"

Mulțumesc, Romania - this is the best you can do for Serbia. Please, block that evil thing no matter what.

I think its all BS, NOT true.

How exactly has Romania benefited from EU membership? Are there roads now paved with gold?

Simply another stupid EU story. Domestic politics at play. Funny to the rampant serbophobes come out yet again, throwing stones out of their own greenhouses because they have ad ususal nothing else to say.

How exactly does Serbia treat Vlachs poorly? They are creating their own cultural center/museum in Petrovac na Mlavi. This is a move by Petrovac's mayor, who, himself, is a Vlach. His people do not account for anything close to a majority in Eastern Serbia, but still, they are mayors and have their own sites to celebrate their culture.

Additionally, Vlach and Romanian are not exactly synonyms. Romanian is a language, recognized by the EU, while the language of Serbia's Vlachs is Aromanian. In censuses, some of them declare themselves as Romanians, some that they are Vlachs, and others that they are Serbs.

Vlach was traditionally more of an occupational descriptor as well. If one was a nomadic shepherd, no matter their actual ethnicity, they were considered Vlachs throughout earlier periods. A great many Albanians were, therefore, Vlachs.

Poland and Slovakia have Vlach populations, called in Poland "Gorale," who, like Romanians, dwell in the Carpathian Mountains. There, they have been nationalized throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and aren't considered as distinct national or ethnic minorities.

So, which is worse? Absorbing a people to the point that they forget their Vlach origins, or allowing them to retain their language and construct their own cultural centers which show that they are not part of the larger nation.

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.
(aaayyy, 23 February 2012, 22:12)

Seeing as the majority of Serbs do not support EU membership; I'd say blocking Serbia's EU membership is a friendly move

@winston: ok man, in your opinion then, all the minorities across the europe should f off and go to their brothers in their country, isn't it? so: serbs from kosovo - go back to serbia, serbs from croatia go back to serbia, croats from serbia - go to croatia, armenians and azeri people go back to their country from nagorno karabakh and so on! :)))) you seem to be a "very smart guy" :)))
how about all serbs living in romania for many many generations go back to serbia?? how this sounds to you?? if you are a serb, go tell them in their face to leave romania and go to serbia! I bet with my life that they would spit in your face or even worse!

Romania simply wants the so-called Vlachs to be recognized as Romanians, which they truly are. The invented Vlach language does not exist! It's sad that Serbia uses Soviet methods like inventing new languages (does Moldovan language ring any bells?) in order to deny the rights of the Romanian minority. Serbia only gives proper rights to the Romanian minority in the autonomous Vojvodina region, but not the Vlachs in the Timok Valley, because Serbia does not recognize them as Romanian. This tactic to see the Vlachs as a different people only serves Serbia's goal of splitting the Romanian minority in half. Romanians have always considered Serbs as their friends, it's sad that stupid politicians try to ruin our relations. Romania does not want any territory from Serbia, it only wants Romanians there to live normal lives, that's all.

Here again the E.U masters tell Romania to block Serbia?

Serbia Should forget this sick union and focus on it's own country, look what Yugoslavia brought to us, the E.U is the same but with more members and Germany and France tell everyone what to do!

And about the vlachs 1900: 100k in 1961: 1,367 1971:14,719 1981:25,595 1991:15,675 2002:40,045 meaning since the 1960s the vlach minority has only improved if the why did the Romanians not whine in the 1960s?

And I believe the Serb minority is in a worse position in Romania then the vlachs in Serbia. Just take a look Serbia is the only multi ethnic country in the Balkans.

Engineer, stop twisting my post. I said "Let all the minorities take their little pieces of land, become independent, even if it's a hector, and shut up already. How many more minorities will have Serbia have to bow too? I don't see these issues in other countries, where minorities are a lot worse off than they are in Serbia. Whatever happened to assimilation? In countries like the USA, minorities have the same treatment across the board, except for Latinos, because the politicians like their votes. But that is it. Vlachs don't go crying to Obama, "we want recognition". Have your damn recognition, and get on with it. Life is tough enough without all this silly nationalist bickering.

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.
Even stranger during the Yougoslav era the roumainians were very much welcome and were working in serbia there with much better wages than under their totalitarian communist regime.
The EU always comes up with something to drag about.
I think it is better for serbia to forget about EU and start living.
By the way the EU is not the center of the world.

@ Serbs posting here:
You seem to consider joining EU as a sort of prize to compensate Serbia for losing Kosovo. This is wrong: among many other things, EU stands for certain standards in protecting minorities in member countries, and Serbia cannot expect to get a pass just because the Serbs in Kosovo feel themselves threathened by Albanians. One cannot repair an injustice by another injustice.
Dan, a Romanian poster above, did explained clearly what is all about regarding the Vlachs situation. Maybe in Belgrade, Vlachs situation is not an issue, all eyes being focused on Kosovo. But we, in Romania, we know exactly what we had to do regarding minorities in order to join EU, and we expect same standards to be imposed to other candidate countries.
Last but not least, stop claiming Serbia is doing too much for its minorities. If this would be true, than Romania, one of the few EU countries not recognizing Kosovo, would be the first to acknowledge. Anyway, everything can and should be negociated, you just need to open up and deal with the Vlach problem. And, for the record, Serbia still has a long way to reach Romania's accomplishments in this area: the Hungarian minority party (5% of votes) is part of the Romanian Government for more than a decade now. But relax, nobody imposes you to bring in Govbt. the parties of Albanians in Presevo Valley.

@ Albanian posters:
You should consider giving up this idea that Romanians should be friends only with one side, Albanians or Serbs. There is no enemity per se in Romania towards Albanians, although there is a genuine sympathy and friendship for Serbs. But those two are not mutual exclusive. These feelings are going way back before Kosovo debacle. However, the shirt is closer to skin than the coat, says an old proverb, so every people has its own interestes to protect. Kosovo is a political problem, not one of relations between peoples. We take pride in supporting all peoples in Balkans in various moments of their history; we were even present at Kosovo Polje Battle, in 1389, and we have 18 historical minority groups, from Hungarians, Armenians and Slovaks to Greeks and Albanians, and from Turks and Tatars to Serbs, Germans and Italians (yes, indeed).
Today, the only thing we expect from Belgrade and Pristina is to negociate a common way to go forward regarding Kosovo, acceptable to both sides, for us to be able to recognize it. So, the key of the problem is negociation. This has nothing to do with Transilvania (which I see is a sort of fixation for Albanians, who fail to see how it was succesfully solved by us and Hungarian ethnics living there). If there is an issue we feel Kosovo precedent may influence, than this is Moldova Republic problem with Transdniestr separatists. Romanians are seeing Moldova as independent country, recognized in its Constitutional borders; therefore, if we recognize Kosovo, this will undermine Moldova position, giving ammo to the separatists supported by Moscow. So, by recognizing what we consider a violation of intl. law (Kosovo UDI) we would jeopardize a sister and neighbor country. As you may see, anything has consequences, and Kosovo will not cease to be considered a precedent just because says so some smart-ass Americans (who have a tenth of our history but are looking down on all of us in Eastern Europe and Balkans).

Denying minoritities rights is business as usual in prejudiced and xenophobic Serbia. As for Romania, they win today's award for the biggest hypocrite. They see how Serbia treat the Vlachs, now multiply that by 100 fold and you will begin to understand how Serbia treats Albanians. Romania should stop using the Hungarian minority as an excuse and acknowledge the historically good relations it has had with Albania by recognizing KOSOVA. Not to mention it is ethically and morally the right thing to do. Wake up ROMANIA.

Serbia should respect the rights of the Romanian minority.

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.

Does this mean that they know that Germany will be putting a hold on Serbia's candidate status? Looks like they didn't want to be solely responsible, but if candidacy is going to be held up anyway, this is the time to make their point. What it's all about: http://www.romaniuitati.eu/content/view/131/45/

Haha... Leaving aside if I think this is justified or not... But I will lough into everybodys face who says that smaller member states loose power if they join the EU... ^^

Romanians aren't stupid. They know now's the time to punish Serbia. This is Romania's last chance to do something about its citizens in Serbia.

From Wiki: Following Roman withdrawal from the province of Dacia at the end of the 3rd century, the name of the Roman region was changed to Dacia Aureliana, and (later Dacia Ripensis) spread over most of what is now called Serbia and Bulgaria, and an undetermined number of Romanized Dacians (Carpi) were settled there. OK, this is where I could give a crap on who Vlachs are. Jesus, is Serbia responsible for every minority that ever existed on the former Yugoslavia? Where exactly is Vlachville? Is it in Serbia proper, or Vojvodina? I suggest to Serbia, have a "Come and take your bullshit minority territory day". Have all the ethnic minorities take their neighborhoods, and get the F out of Serbia. Who needs these dead weights? Was Romania complaining when Belgrade was paying for all the bills VLACHs were incurring in Serbia before today? F all of you nationalists, and a super F to the EU for failing to bring countries together in your Union. EU, you are a failure.

Cool. I love the Romanians. Please keep Serbia out of the EU freak show. I love the Vlachs, whoever they are. Give them half of Serbia, but just keep us out of the EU. My next vacation will be in Vlachovia, Serbia.

*unnamed sources*

Who knows if this is real or not.

How are the Serbs not caring for the vlachs?

Romania, Thank you for helping keep Serbia out of EU. I know its not easy to except that Romanians from Serbia are very proud to be Serbian.And more hardcore then most Serbs. I know Romaians from Romania who always look up to Serbia. The rest is politic's. Who knows maybe the opposition in Serbia paid Romania to bloc Serbia's bid. Romania needs money real bad today!!

Haha... Leaving aside if I think this is justified or not... But I will lough into everybodys face who says that smaller member states loose power if they join the EU... ^^
(Observer, 23 February 2012, 22:50)

Oh yes, small states have such great power. Romania does this on the day Germany, who will never let Serbia into the EU, shows up to say they support their entry. Next time the Germans will have some other tiny and insignificant state do it. The bottom line will always be the same. Serbs had better get over any notion of entering the EU.

From Wiki: Following Roman withdrawal from the province of Dacia at the end of the 3rd century, the name of the Roman region was changed to Dacia Aureliana, and (later Dacia Ripensis) spread over most of what is now called Serbia and Bulgaria, and an undetermined number of Romanized Dacians (Carpi) were settled there. OK, this is where I could give a crap on who Vlachs are. Jesus, is Serbia responsible for every minority that ever existed on the former Yugoslavia? Where exactly is Vlachville? Is it in Serbia proper, or Vojvodina? I suggest to Serbia, have a "Come and take your bullshit minority territory day". Have all the ethnic minorities take their neighborhoods, and get the F out of Serbia. Who needs these dead weights? Was Romania complaining when Belgrade was paying for all the bills VLACHs were incurring in Serbia before today? F all of you nationalists, and a super F to the EU for failing to bring countries together in your Union. EU, you are a failure.
(winston, 23 February 2012, 23:28)

Winston how vulgar of you to curse all the minorities in Serbia, you se Serbia is deffending all Minorities in Kosovo but they have issues with Romas and Vlachs in their own country :) it looks like to pay the piper for Serbia and this si to become candidate just think what has to be done to get Full Membership :).

Rumania to Serbia give them Athasari plan to my Vlachs in Serbia or I will recognize Kosovo .... Vuk oh no please no ... :)

Mircea, we respect Romanian rights very well. In fact, the Romanian language is one of the official languages in Vojvodina.

I think that what is going on is that the Romanians want the vlachs to be declared Romanians? I dunno.

Ok, I'll admit that's kind of funny. If this is true, this should be a no brainer. Serbs and Romanians have a strong relationship with each other, so this shouldn't be a problem.

This is pure propagnada.. No one in Serbia even knows who these people are.. I guess the Serbs who live in fear today in Kosovo non-stop while albanian thugs in Preserve just renamed a street after a terrorist shows how "evil" the serbs are..

Long live European Union, there is nothing better in the Solar System than European Union. If that is the price, every Serb shold rather kill their love or wife than to miss the chance to join European Union. We can't get enough of European Union, it's flying high like MALÉV airplanes.

"Daily: Romania determined to block Serbia's candidate bid"

Mulțumesc, Romania - this is the best you can do for Serbia. Please, block that evil thing no matter what.

I think its all BS, NOT true.

How exactly has Romania benefited from EU membership? Are there roads now paved with gold?

Simply another stupid EU story. Domestic politics at play. Funny to the rampant serbophobes come out yet again, throwing stones out of their own greenhouses because they have ad ususal nothing else to say.

How exactly does Serbia treat Vlachs poorly? They are creating their own cultural center/museum in Petrovac na Mlavi. This is a move by Petrovac's mayor, who, himself, is a Vlach. His people do not account for anything close to a majority in Eastern Serbia, but still, they are mayors and have their own sites to celebrate their culture.

Additionally, Vlach and Romanian are not exactly synonyms. Romanian is a language, recognized by the EU, while the language of Serbia's Vlachs is Aromanian. In censuses, some of them declare themselves as Romanians, some that they are Vlachs, and others that they are Serbs.

Vlach was traditionally more of an occupational descriptor as well. If one was a nomadic shepherd, no matter their actual ethnicity, they were considered Vlachs throughout earlier periods. A great many Albanians were, therefore, Vlachs.

Poland and Slovakia have Vlach populations, called in Poland "Gorale," who, like Romanians, dwell in the Carpathian Mountains. There, they have been nationalized throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and aren't considered as distinct national or ethnic minorities.

So, which is worse? Absorbing a people to the point that they forget their Vlach origins, or allowing them to retain their language and construct their own cultural centers which show that they are not part of the larger nation.

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.
(aaayyy, 23 February 2012, 22:12)

Seeing as the majority of Serbs do not support EU membership; I'd say blocking Serbia's EU membership is a friendly move

@winston: ok man, in your opinion then, all the minorities across the europe should f off and go to their brothers in their country, isn't it? so: serbs from kosovo - go back to serbia, serbs from croatia go back to serbia, croats from serbia - go to croatia, armenians and azeri people go back to their country from nagorno karabakh and so on! :)))) you seem to be a "very smart guy" :)))
how about all serbs living in romania for many many generations go back to serbia?? how this sounds to you?? if you are a serb, go tell them in their face to leave romania and go to serbia! I bet with my life that they would spit in your face or even worse!

Romania simply wants the so-called Vlachs to be recognized as Romanians, which they truly are. The invented Vlach language does not exist! It's sad that Serbia uses Soviet methods like inventing new languages (does Moldovan language ring any bells?) in order to deny the rights of the Romanian minority. Serbia only gives proper rights to the Romanian minority in the autonomous Vojvodina region, but not the Vlachs in the Timok Valley, because Serbia does not recognize them as Romanian. This tactic to see the Vlachs as a different people only serves Serbia's goal of splitting the Romanian minority in half. Romanians have always considered Serbs as their friends, it's sad that stupid politicians try to ruin our relations. Romania does not want any territory from Serbia, it only wants Romanians there to live normal lives, that's all.

Here again the E.U masters tell Romania to block Serbia?

Serbia Should forget this sick union and focus on it's own country, look what Yugoslavia brought to us, the E.U is the same but with more members and Germany and France tell everyone what to do!

And about the vlachs 1900: 100k in 1961: 1,367 1971:14,719 1981:25,595 1991:15,675 2002:40,045 meaning since the 1960s the vlach minority has only improved if the why did the Romanians not whine in the 1960s?

And I believe the Serb minority is in a worse position in Romania then the vlachs in Serbia. Just take a look Serbia is the only multi ethnic country in the Balkans.

Engineer, stop twisting my post. I said "Let all the minorities take their little pieces of land, become independent, even if it's a hector, and shut up already. How many more minorities will have Serbia have to bow too? I don't see these issues in other countries, where minorities are a lot worse off than they are in Serbia. Whatever happened to assimilation? In countries like the USA, minorities have the same treatment across the board, except for Latinos, because the politicians like their votes. But that is it. Vlachs don't go crying to Obama, "we want recognition". Have your damn recognition, and get on with it. Life is tough enough without all this silly nationalist bickering.

Very strange indeed. Romania has always been very friendly to Serbia.
Even stranger during the Yougoslav era the roumainians were very much welcome and were working in serbia there with much better wages than under their totalitarian communist regime.
The EU always comes up with something to drag about.
I think it is better for serbia to forget about EU and start living.
By the way the EU is not the center of the world.

@ Serbs posting here:
You seem to consider joining EU as a sort of prize to compensate Serbia for losing Kosovo. This is wrong: among many other things, EU stands for certain standards in protecting minorities in member countries, and Serbia cannot expect to get a pass just because the Serbs in Kosovo feel themselves threathened by Albanians. One cannot repair an injustice by another injustice.
Dan, a Romanian poster above, did explained clearly what is all about regarding the Vlachs situation. Maybe in Belgrade, Vlachs situation is not an issue, all eyes being focused on Kosovo. But we, in Romania, we know exactly what we had to do regarding minorities in order to join EU, and we expect same standards to be imposed to other candidate countries.
Last but not least, stop claiming Serbia is doing too much for its minorities. If this would be true, than Romania, one of the few EU countries not recognizing Kosovo, would be the first to acknowledge. Anyway, everything can and should be negociated, you just need to open up and deal with the Vlach problem. And, for the record, Serbia still has a long way to reach Romania's accomplishments in this area: the Hungarian minority party (5% of votes) is part of the Romanian Government for more than a decade now. But relax, nobody imposes you to bring in Govbt. the parties of Albanians in Presevo Valley.

@ Albanian posters:
You should consider giving up this idea that Romanians should be friends only with one side, Albanians or Serbs. There is no enemity per se in Romania towards Albanians, although there is a genuine sympathy and friendship for Serbs. But those two are not mutual exclusive. These feelings are going way back before Kosovo debacle. However, the shirt is closer to skin than the coat, says an old proverb, so every people has its own interestes to protect. Kosovo is a political problem, not one of relations between peoples. We take pride in supporting all peoples in Balkans in various moments of their history; we were even present at Kosovo Polje Battle, in 1389, and we have 18 historical minority groups, from Hungarians, Armenians and Slovaks to Greeks and Albanians, and from Turks and Tatars to Serbs, Germans and Italians (yes, indeed).
Today, the only thing we expect from Belgrade and Pristina is to negociate a common way to go forward regarding Kosovo, acceptable to both sides, for us to be able to recognize it. So, the key of the problem is negociation. This has nothing to do with Transilvania (which I see is a sort of fixation for Albanians, who fail to see how it was succesfully solved by us and Hungarian ethnics living there). If there is an issue we feel Kosovo precedent may influence, than this is Moldova Republic problem with Transdniestr separatists. Romanians are seeing Moldova as independent country, recognized in its Constitutional borders; therefore, if we recognize Kosovo, this will undermine Moldova position, giving ammo to the separatists supported by Moscow. So, by recognizing what we consider a violation of intl. law (Kosovo UDI) we would jeopardize a sister and neighbor country. As you may see, anything has consequences, and Kosovo will not cease to be considered a precedent just because says so some smart-ass Americans (who have a tenth of our history but are looking down on all of us in Eastern Europe and Balkans).