Dr. Constantinos Filis Dimopoulos Dimosthenis, Karagiannopoulos Petros-Damianos

European Union

It is also of great importance to understand that the European Union with its normative, administrative and technocratic approach to foreign policy makes it a different kind of global actor. If that distinguishing fact makes the European Foreign Policy better than those with strategic and energetic foreign policies remains dubious. [89] [90]

Europeans might truly believe that Ukraine has a European future if Ukraine does want one and if Ukraine is ready to do all those reforms and sacrifices necessary for it to adjust to the European social, economic, institutional and political standards. However, European Union still has not offered Ukraine an explicit membership perspective, as its eastern Member-States, like Poland, want a friendly neighboring Ukraine, but western Member-States, like Spain and Portugal, believe that Ukraine is too far away from their own interests. [89]

Alongside with the United States of America, the European Union has decided to impose unilateral sanctions against Russia, rather hesitantly one may add. Imposing tougher sanctions in cooperation with the US on the key sectors of the Russian economy could indeed deal a major blow to Moscow’s fragile economy. The European and Russia economies are deeply interconnected, therefore any harsh sanctions on Russia would also deal a massive blow to the shaky European Union, which is desperately trying to escape from the slumber of fiscal austerity.

Given the great dependence of the European Union to Russian oil and natural gas, one would certainly advise the European Union and its members to start immediately efforts in order to diversify its energy suppliers. That could be done by pursuing the exploitation of newly found oil and gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean and by seeking new suppliers that would be interested in acquiring a share of the vast European Energy Market. Such new potential suppliers could be some of its Mediterranean neighbors or possibly oil and natural gas rich African neighbors like Nigeria. [91] If a diversification is achieved – although that might be in the medium and long-term- European Union’s flexibility to negotiate with Russia in a vast number of issues can be greatly increased. Even the decision and the commencement of its systematic pursuit can yield positive results for Europe.

Another step the European Union can take in order to increase its assertiveness, not only in the Ukrainian crisis but in the long-term as well, is to seriously consider adopting a serious Common Defense Strategy, which can include even the creation of a European Armed Force. It can easily be argued that the Union does not need an Armed Force given its rather normative foreign policy and due to the existence of NATO, however it is important to underline at this point that not all the Members of the EU are members of NATO, and in an ever-changing global landscape NATO has taken and might take duties that might defer from the ones of the Union. As we have seen in the past NATO has taken action in regions far away from Europe and the potential rise of China might force it to get involved in areas far away from what someone may call an extended neighborhood of Europe. Such course of action might appear very provocative to Russia and raise suspicions and similar counteractions, but it seems a necessary step forward if the European Union wishes to become a true global actor in the new-old days of great power security competition that are coming back. [84]

As long as the European Union remains closely attached to its style of being a normative power its most pragmatic and efficient way of helping Ukraine is through financial assistance, as the Ukrainian economy is practically collapsed. Additionally, Europe can cooperate with the new Ukrainian Authorities in institution building, anti-corruption efforts, economic and political reforms; areas that Kiev will need to tend to if it genuinely wants to become truly independent, self-sustaining and in the long-term a member of the European family. However, providing sufficient amounts of financial aid to Ukraine could create a rift between austerity stricken countries of the European South and might prove to be a great burden for the fragile European economy.

Similarly as the US did, attempting the international isolation of Russia could be an option for the European Union as well. However, the economic interdependence and the strategic importance of maintaining close relations with Moscow make this course of action highly impossible, while its success would be at the very least dubious as it has been stated previously.

It is certain that the European Union is not going to benefit from a prolonged and continuously escalated crisis in Ukraine. The Eurozone crisis is not over yet and if Europe wants to finally overcome it, it will need a stable, normalized and peaceful environment, where it can build mutually prosperous relations with its existing partners and find new ones. Therefore, it is essential for the European Union to seek ways to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine and pursue a solution that will involve and satisfy all parties, as this is the only way to achieve lasting peace and stability.

The European Union is one of the few actors in the crisis that can persuade the new Ukrainian Government to pursue such goals and start an inclusive dialogue, through which national reconciliation and stability can be achieved.

One positive development so far for the European Union remains the fact that European Leaders have formulated a specific Foreign Policy towards an international development. Hopefully, the Ukrainian crisis will help Europe’s Leaders to realize that the European Union’s strength originates from its cooperation, unity and solidarity.