Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been a turning point for the European Union.
In a matter of days, its members put aside long-standing policy stances and
came together to impose the bloc’s harshest ever sanctions on Russia.
It all started with Russia’s first military move into two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine.
Russia's decision to recognize the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is illegal
and completely unacceptable.
The same is true for the decision to send troops to these regions.
We cannot accept this.
Subsequently, the EU, in coordination with the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization or NATO, imposed its first package of sanctions on Russia.
But there were calls for tougher measures, with Ukraine’s leaders in particular saying
more needed to be done.
On that same day, Germany announced that it was not going ahead with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
No certification of the pipeline can now takeplace.
The project had been controversial in Europe and in the U.S. for a long time.
It was meant to bring more gas directly from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Critics complained the pipeline would increase Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
Supporters claimed it was simply a commercial project and that it should not be tangled in geopolitics.
Construction of the pipeline started in 2018 and concluded in late 2021, but the project
was in limbo because of regulatory delays.
Now, its owner has filed for bankruptcy.
But this was only the beginning in terms of sanctions against Russia.
After the U.S. warned that a major military assault of Ukraine was likely imminent,
EU leaders decided to meet in person and discuss their next steps.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, however, beat them to the chase.
In the early hours of Thursday, Russian troops made their move, after a barrage of missile
and artillery attacks.
When EU leaders arrived in Brussels on Thursday evening, they were no longer assessing what
could happen next. Instead, they were responding to a full-scale invasion.
You see what’s happening.
A nuclear power, a country who has nuclear arms, is launching a brutal attack against its neighbor.
An unjustified attack, and threatening everybody that could come and help.
In the following days, the bloc took even bolder steps to tackle Russia.
On the third day of Russia’s invasion, the EU and its allies agreed to remove Russian
banks from the international payments system, SWIFT, seen as one of the worst possible economic sanctions.
And in a surprise move, Germany announced that it was sending weapons to Ukraine, and
stepping up its defense budget.
The country, due to its role in World War II, had historically refused to send deadly
weapons to any conflict zone and had kept defense spending to a minimum.
Other EU countries have also announced they will supply lethal weapons to Ukraine to fight Russia.
And then there’s Poland and Hungary.
These two nations have traditionally taken a harder line when it comes to welcoming refugees
from Syria and other war-torn countries.
In this crisis however, they have become crucial reception areas for Ukrainians fleeing the violence,
though some non-white refugees have faced discrimination at the border.
I’ve been covering European politics for a while now, and I’ve never seen
this level of unity before.
What led to the shift?
Well, EU officials tell me they were inspired by Ukraine fighting back.
They also say that by invading Ukraine, Russia is threatening the very values that the EU stands for.
I am well aware that these sanctions will come at a cost for our economy, too.
But I believe that the people of Europe understand very well that we must stand up against this cruel aggression.
So, the EU has invested in weapons and defense for the first time ever.
It has imposed tough sanctions in record time.
It even closed its airspace to Russian airlines.
In essence: It has never been this united on foreign policy before.
So what does this all mean going forward?
This is potentially the biggest leap that the EU has ever taken on the back of a crisis.
This will have impacts on this idea of strategic autonomy,
and this idea of more European Defense coherence.
For a while now, the EU has been considering a more independent defense policy.
The bloc essentially relies on NATO to guarantee its defense. But progress in this area has been slow.
Now with member states shipping arms to Ukraine and EU money being spent on defense, analysts
argue the bloc might do even more to boost its military capability.
But it’s still unlikely to go as far as building an EU army.
Despite EU coordination and financial backing, most of the initiatives are being taken at
member state level. It's difficult to extrapolate from the past weeks’ developments, that
we're immediately going to find ourselves, in a world of stronger European defense in
an environment where we're marching in lockstep towards building a European army.
In 2021, the EU imported 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia,
accounting for 45 percent of the bloc’s total gas imports.
Now, the EU is looking for alternatives to Russian supply.
We simply cannot rely so much on a supplier that explicitly threatens us.
This is why we reached out to other global suppliers.
And finally, the EU could be more willing to accept new members in the bloc.
Ukraine officially applied to become a member on February 28,
and some EU nations have expressed their support.
But the process is traditionally lengthy, and it is still unclear how the EU will deal
with Ukraine’s request, especially when other countries like North Macedonia
have been waiting in the wings for years.
Former Soviet republics Georgia and Moldova also submitted applications to join the Union
a week after the offensive began.
All in all, it is too early to assess the full implications of Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine on the EU, but the bloc has very quickly begun having tough conversations on energy,
defense, enlargement that had been avoided for years.