The Cold War divided Europe in two into blocks of similar size. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the European Union and NATO expanded to the center and east of the continent when the countries that had been in the orbit of the Kremlin were able to decide their future.
After two decades it became clear that Russia, heir to the USSR, had retained a zone of influence but that those countries, with the exception of Belarus, did not want to be under the Russian umbrella. The tensions lasted for years up to the seams burst on the night of February 24th it happened when Russian tanks crossed the Ukrainian border.
The great war, that of the massive movements of materials and men, returned to Europe. and after her A new European order is beginning to emerge so the seams of the European Union are insufficient.
The idea came in May from French President Emmanuel Macron and the official invitation came in July from the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, representing the 27 Member States of the European Union. European diplomacy did not have everything with it.
Defending his idea, at the European summit in June, Macron even stated, to justify its creation and not open the door of the European Union to those countries, that “we do not have the vocation to live all in the same house but we share the same Street”.
Macron was resurrecting an idea of the former French president François Mitterrand, who in 1991 and also in Prague, together with the new president and former dissident Vaclav Havel, tried to launch a similar organization but which would later include Russia.
New political creation
The first service arrived this Thursday. In Prague Castle, in the capital of the 1968 European velvet revolution against Russian tanks, the heads of state or government of 44 European countries, the 27 of the EU and 17 others met.
The list is long, the organization is complex and European diplomacy had to make an effort, but in Prague Castle they appeared from the Turkish Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the British Liz Truss. Iceland, Albania, Armenia, Georgia joined.
Neighboring countries of Russia and countries of the western part of Europe. All for a photo at 44 which will be that of those opposed to warmongering Russia.
Only Moscow and its vassal Belarus, a puppet state dominated by the Kremlin, are missing. The assistance is of such magnitude that two countries aligned in principle with Russia, such as Serbia and partly Armenia, also participate.
The summit is primarily a continent’s diplomatic alignment exercise and the first meeting of a new political creation, the European Political Community.
The goal of the European Union is to bind its neighborhood in its orbit without having to open the doors of the block for it because there is no appetite for enlargement but there is for greater European coordination and to isolate the Russia.
In addition to the geopolitics and anti-war speeches, there will be practical decisions because the EU 27 will come to meet with a new package of sanctions against Moscow. These include an upper limit on what is paid for Russian oil to reduce Russia’s revenues.
Leaders will sit at debating tables that will deal with issues such as peace and stability on the continent or energy policies and the climate crisis. There will be discussions on migration and a working dinner before a declaration is published tonight that will be signed by the 44.
Diplomatic sources reported this this week the success of this new creature will be seen in the coming months and years if it serves the EU to align its neighborhood on its side. The idea is that these summits take place every six months. The next three will be in Moldova, Spain and the UK.
The summit will continue on Friday as an EU conclave. The document prepared by European diplomacy for that second meeting, and to which the leaders will give their approval, ensures that the Europeans “will help Ukraine win the war” and that this support “will last as long as necessary” and will be military, political and economic.
Furthermore, Europe already hosts more than four million Ukrainian refugees. Support for Kiev will continue, Europeans promise, despite the energy crisis, inflation or likely recession in 2023.
Especially in the east of the bloc, many think that Ukraine’s fall could be just the first piece of a chess game, but that if Ukraine holds up, Russia will think much better before shooting.
Brussels, special
CB
Source: Clarin
