Carnegie Moscow Center
The EU’s most immediate task in Ukraine is to stop treating Viktor Yanukovych as a privileged partner. The EU must build on its values to become a serious geostrategic player.
The current Ukrainian awakening is a test for Europe and its ability to reenergize itself and acquire a mission to help find Ukraine a peaceful way out of the confrontation.
Ukraine’s future will offer answers not only to the question of whether or not Russia will continue to see itself as an empire, but also to the question of how committed Europe is to the values it espouses and how far the West is prepared to expand its influence.
Whatever happens at today’s Vilnius summit, EU Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle believes that the prospect of membership is the most transformative instrument the EU has.
Georgia has been ready for any and every subsequent step that paves the way toward anchorage with the project of European Integration.
In the run-up to the Vilnius summit, the EU could have played its hand better and could have gone the extra mile with Moscow to demonstrate to Russia and the world its good intentions.
Ukraine’s decision not to sign a landmark agreement with the EU does not signal defeat for the EU’s foreign policy. On the contrary, the bloc emerges stronger than before.
The Vilnius summit may be successful only if Europe analyzes the Ukrainian lesson and the EU’s own strategic faults, and if it decides to reinvent its current Eastern Partnership model.
After its success with Ukraine, Russia will try to blackmail Georgia and Moldova into refusing EU association agreements. Europe needs to think about how to counter Putin.
The Ukrainian government’s suspension of the EU association process has come as a bombshell to many. However, it is Russia, ironically, who needs to be wary of this decision.