Romania exists as a democratic state during its recent history from 1990 after the fall of communism. Nevertheless, the democratization process of Romanian society continues even now, when the country is a full member of the European Union. The process of formulating the foreign policy of the state keeps being closed and sometimes circumstantial, without any public debate or deliberately ignoring public opinion.

The relevant authority in the field, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is loosing its capacity to adequately respond to foreign policy challenges and actively defend and promote national and citizens’ interests within EU and in relation to other international actors. This happens due to constant interference from other state institutions involving party or group interests as well as poor management of Ministry’s resources, human ones in the first place.

In this context, Soros Foundation Romania sensed the need to launch an initiative that would underpin the democratization of decision-making process in the sphere of foreign policy. This is the “Foreign Affairs Initiative” program.

Romania is still on the way to an open society where citizens and civil society have the possibility to influence the decision-making process or the appropriate institutions to take one or another policy decision on the international arena through different social undertakings. However, given the lack of qualified informational-analytical resources or tools available to the public to take action, the situation remains unchanged perpetuating awareness deficit on issues pertaining to EU matters or international relations in general.

The program’s ultimate goal is to educate the general public about foreign policy issues and to actively involve the civil society in monitoring and scrutinizing the decision-making process in the field of foreign affairs as well as to make respective decision-makers more accountable to the people who elected them.

Objectives for short-term period:
•    Creating an extensive database of existing and operational NGOs, think tanks, independent experts, researchers, academics, journalists, editorialists and even student associations dealing with issues of Romanian foreign policy;
•    Assembling a structure representative for the civil society constituted of experts on foreign policy issues who will analyze the activity of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and provide solutions and recommendation on improving the quality of decisions made by it;
•    Publishing a specialty newspaper or analytical bulletin on issues of Romanian foreign policy;
•    Carrying out scientific research on the peculiarities of Romanian foreign policy decision making process.