Tag Archives: European Union

Immediate opening of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU

auf Deutsch en Français in Italiano українською мовою

Immediate opening of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU: appeal to EU Council President Emmanuel Macron

The Lithuania Tribune, February 16, 2022, Espreso.TV (Kyiv), February 17, 2022 , Desk Russie, February 19, 2022, EuromaidanPress, February 19, 2022

Mr. President of the Republic,

The threats to the security and integrity of Ukraine and, beyond, of the whole of Europe, are unprecedented since the end of the Second World War.

On the one hand, some EU Member States have already taken courageous decisions. Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, France and Poland have decided to provide civilian and military equipment to Ukraine, while Denmark, the Netherlands and Spain have committed themselves to strengthening the military presence in the region; France is preparing to do the same in Romania.

On the other hand, the European Union is working with the United States and other Nato members on a list of new sanctions to try to ward off a new invasion by the Russian Federation.

While these are steps in the right direction of strengthening deterrence, it may not be enough to ensure stability in Ukraine in the short to medium term. Lire la suite →

Ukraine, the West and Europe

Ukraine. Freeze NATO membership and start EU accession negotiations immediately

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If, as the dictionary tells us, “to plan” means “to decide on a future course of action and how to implement it”, then Mark Galeotti is wrong to imply that “the Kremlin is unlikely to know any more than us whether an invasion of Ukraine is planned” 1. While President Putin does not know “if” and “when” he would intervene in Ukraine, invasion is an option that he might resort to, depending on circumstances and needs. It is, as such, thoroughly prepared. Lire la suite →

Notes:

  1. “Kremlin Unlikely to Know Any More Than Us if Invasion Is Coming to Ukraine”, Mark Galeotti, The Moscow Times, 23 November 2021 ↩

Europe of defence or Europe of security?

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Linkiesta, 20 October 2021

It was a good deal – too good to be true. The supply of 12 conventionally powered submarines to Australia, a contract worth nearly € 55 billion, half of which seemed set to go to France’s Naval Group. Australia cancelled the contract, purely and simply, in favour of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines from the United States and the United Kingdom. “Betrayal”, “stab in the back”, “attempt to eliminate the French defence industry”, “strategic break”, “slap in the face for France”, “breach of trust”, recall of ambassador, and so on. Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister, was the most melodramatic, describing the USA and Australia as “former partners”. 1 Lire la suite →

Notes:

  1. France 2, 18 September, 2021 ↩

Europe’s strategic suicide

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Geopolitica, May, 2021

The People’s Republic of China’s rise in economic, technological and military power and at the same the time, the transformation of its regime from authoritarian to totalitarian is the first threat to the free world and therefore to Europe in terms of preserving a global environment based on freedom (and freedoms).

The second is the strengthening of the Russian Federation’s power to destroy and destabilise, a power which does not translate so much into a new military threat to the Union since the NATO cooperation, which is important and strategic, has been renewed. But rather it has a very strong capacity to harm the interests of the European Union (and its member States) not only in its immediate vicinity, notably in Ukraine, Belarus, the South Caucasus, the Middle East and the Maghreb, but also in Africa. Lire la suite →

A Union or the sex of angels

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On 15 November last, Die Welt reported on the initiative of SPD members of the Bundestag for the creation of a 28th European army: a Common European Army.

Contrary to others who believe that the “Europe of Defence, which we thought unthinkable, we have done it”, Fritz Felgentreu and his colleagues consider that Europe still has a lot to do, and they provide a concrete outline of a way forward. The first merit of their proposal is doubtless that it shows unambiguously how the Union might achieve a real sharing of sovereignty in a particularly sensitive area, that of the common security of the 27. Their scenario proposes that this army should be common and “community-based”, meaning that it should come under the authority of the Union’s institutions and comprise European soldiers and not contingents from national armies. Another undeniable merit of their proposal is that it is both compatible with, and complementary to, an approach to European defence based on national armies and NATO membership, an idea brilliantly restated by German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer in her recent speech at the Bundeswehr University in Hamburg. Lire la suite →