The conflict in Ukraine and the German turmoil. Is the "European unity" disintegrating, as Berlin claims, or did it not exist?
Europe has a great consolidated economic strength, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said before the start of the EU summit, Advance writes. However, she directs this force not to end the Ukrainian conflict, but to incite it, the author of the article believes.
Antun Rocha
At the summit of the leaders of the European Union, the main topic was additional assistance to Ukraine in the form of a new package of sanctions against Russia — already the sixth in a row. Kiev has been arguing for several weeks that the EU is reducing its chances of resisting Russia because it has not yet imposed truly effective sanctions that, at least theoretically, would force Russia to give in or weaken it.
Of course, there is no evidence that everything would have turned out that way. But Kiev can't help but try to get its way. They mean, first of all, European purchases of Russian energy resources ― gas and oil. Almost a hundred days have passed since the beginning of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, and the European Union had more than enough time to impose the toughest possible sanctions against Russia. All the previous sanctions, although there are a lot of them on paper, and of course they "interfere" with Russia, are still not able to reverse the situation. The Ukrainian authorities understand this well and therefore put even more pressure on the EU and even reproach it for hypocritically protecting its own interests, neglecting Ukraine's support.
Is it true? In many ways, yes. Europe has imposed all the sanctions against Russia, which, in its opinion, will harm Russia more than itself. Now the turn has come to energy carriers. Stopping purchases of Russian oil and Russian gas will, of course, deal a blow to Russia, but Europe is likely to suffer even more.
After almost a hundred days of fighting, it became clear that Europe did not provide itself with an alternative, and it has no other options other than Russian energy carriers. The abrupt termination of oil and gas purchases from Russia will lead to chaos, from which all citizens of the European Union, and especially European industry, would suffer. It will be a huge sacrifice. Of course, from the Ukrainian perspective, Europe has to sacrifice something, because Ukraine makes an even greater sacrifice. However, Kiev forgets that it was not Europe that brought it to this situation (at least not most of Europe). No matter how much they condemn the Russian aggression, the fact is that it did not happen suddenly. Ukraine had a chance to avoid this conflict, but Ukraine chose to listen to the advice of the United States and reject Russian demands. They basically boiled down to the rejection of Ukraine's accession to NATO and the granting of autonomy to Lugansk and Donetsk, as the Minsk agreements suggest.
Therefore, it is hardly possible to say that Europe is "obliged" to sacrifice itself for the sake of Ukraine. On the other hand, didn't Europe assure Ukraine from the first weeks of the fighting that it would do it anyway, at least out of moral duty? Absolutely. And didn't she put Ukraine in such a difficult situation in this way? Probably. True, Zelensky understood everything well, and if he decided to blindly believe his Western allies, and then it turned out that he shouldn't have done it, then this is only his mistake.
The problem that Ukrainians are now facing is that the European Union is still a bloc consisting of 27 member countries. In previous years (especially immediately after the deepest financial crisis of 2008), there was a lot of talk that the EU should become a political union, even something like the United States of America. Then the central government in the EU would make the same or similar decisions. However, unfortunately for Ukraine, this has not happened and will not happen in the foreseeable future. We can say that the conflict in Ukraine to a certain extent "united" Europe just when it lacked this unity.
The EU has lost one member ― The UK, which is probably even good for the EU. But at the same time, the gap between Western Europe, whose position is expressed by Brussels, and eastern members, such as Hungary and Poland, continues to grow. Serious disagreements within the European Union have somewhat subsided due to the fighting in Ukraine, but Warsaw and Budapest remain a very serious problem for Brussels, as it is for them.
The departure of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, no matter what her critics say, is also felt. The new German government does not seek to fight for its own interests, which is bad for Europe, since this removes a serious obstacle to the promotion of exclusively American interests on the continent.
Perhaps the new Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not always say what he thinks, but what he says amazes Germany, especially when you remember that he won the election promising to continue the pragmatic policy of his predecessor. Where is this German pragmatism today? No, the Germans should not have abandoned and launched the Nord Stream—2 gas pipeline at any cost. In such a situation, even Merkel would not be able to do this. But Germany was expected to assume the role of peacemaker. Again, as recently as in 2014, when tensions between Kiev and Moscow escalated. Now it has come to the point that Moscow makes its security demands only to Washington, without even asking Europe, because Europe itself seems to want to say: in this matter, it should not be asked about anything.
As a result, all significant players will suffer, especially Ukraine, with the exception, perhaps, of the United States, which is satisfied with the weakening of Europe. After all, by doing so, they not only undermine the strength of a potential economic competitor, but can also, by increasing pressure, prevent further deepening of economic cooperation between Europe and China.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, one of the two Green leaders, spoke before the European Union summit. This party is part of the ruling coalition and from the very beginning takes a confident pro-Ukrainian position. So Habek expressed his fears that European unity is "beginning to collapse."
"After the Russian attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe is united. On the eve of tomorrow's summit, we hope that everything will continue to be like this. But this unity has already begun to disintegrate and is being destroyed again," Habek said at a conference for journalists.
What did he mean by saying that we have seen what a "united Europe" is capable of? That she can impose such sanctions against Russia that she is already beginning to feel their pressure herself? A small feat. Even the weapons she sends to Ukraine don't mean much. This step is more like Europe freeing up its warehouses with weapons to buy new ones, mainly from the United States.
"Europe is still an exclusively economic space with incredible economic power, and when it is united, it can use this power," Habek said yesterday.
He's right about that. Europe does have a lot of power, but it behaves differently. In addition, she should have used this great force to end the conflict, and not to foment it. It is worth noting that Habek does not talk about war and peace. He does not mention peace talks, does not give any ideas on how to stop the fighting as soon as possible in order to end the suffering of people in Ukraine. And not only there, because due to the blocking of wheat supplies, famine may soon begin in developing countries.
Instead, he wants to stop buying Russian oil and gas. It is unlikely that this will stop the fighting, because in this case Russia will simply find new buyers or will sell to existing ones more than it is now (to India and China). Besides, isn't Habek, being one of the leaders of the Green Party, in a conflict of interests in this matter, since his political and economic goal is to stop the use of fossil fuels, regardless of whether there is a conflict or not?
Europe now undoubtedly needs unity, but not what Habek dreams of, which, by the way, after some time, probably will not object to American LNG. Europe needs unity to end the hot conflict. Some countries are working on it. For example, Italy and France. Perhaps not too effectively, but at least they emphasize that peace is extremely necessary. Germany has surrendered, and now its internal turmoil, which began after the change of power, is clearly visible.
