“We believe that we will not experience the ‘worst case scenario’ and that the Russian invasion will not cross the borders of Ukraine and will not contaminate the security architecture at European or NATO level, as” both NATO and Europe are absolute umbrellas of protection, “he said. the Vice-President of the European Commission for the Promotion of the European Lifestyle, Margaritis Schoinasspeaking in the First Program 91.6 and 105.8.
“The worst would be the long-term consolidation of military operations, the logic of a long-term war that will pass in the long run all the negative consequences we live in and the possibility to delay an agreed solution for the future of Ukraine. The faster, the better, “he stressed.
“Perhaps the most direct consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is its creation narrow front in Europe and the 27 Member States without any disagreement, without any “crack” of questioning the value of joint action. This was unprecedented, I have been in European politics for many years, I do not remember a similar case. “Something is slowly being created that we have never had in Europe, a European public opinion, a European public space, which has unreservedly sided with Ukraine and I think it is perhaps the most promising development for the future.”
Asked if this tight front would remain our “legacy” even after the end of the war, he countered that the same fear existed at the time of European pandemic management. “And there, when Europe made decisive progress in the mass vaccine market, in the creation of the Recovery Fund and the issuance of a joint certificate, and there we were concerned that this unity of Europeans would remain on the post-pandemic horizon. It seems that not only did he stay, but he was also the “yeast” for this new demonstration of European solidarity in Ukraine. I believe that, as the Prime Minister rightly said, Europe has “grown violently”, that is, it has gone through the “Rubicon of maturity” through these great crises. I believe that it is slowly forging this unity of action, no longer the Europe of analysis and umbilical cord, of what we have to do, but of a Europe that works in the field. “And that is very promising, very comforting,” he explained.
Regarding the EU’s common foreign policy, he noted that this is the next chapter, ie in the book of European integration, there are two more chapters that have not been written. “One is the common tax policy and the other is the common policy for Defense and Foreign Relations. In these last two forts there are still resistance, veto, veto, we do not have the reflexes of a single Community action. Europe’s violent adulthood also acts as a historic accelerator to move us in that direction. In the recent Informal Summit of Versailles, these discussions have been at the heart of the consultations of Europe ‘s leaders. Look at the world around us, around Europe there is an ocean of uncertainty and insecurity pushing Europeans for understanding and common action. “In the coming years, this historic accelerator will yield results in this area as well,” he said
Mr Schoinas described the question posed by Moscow as a “very big strategic mistake” as “what does Ukraine’s job in NATO and the EU”, saying that the question has now exceeded these wording limits. “The question is different. In the Europe of 2022, in the world of 2022, by what moral, political or legal argument, can a country deny another independent country the right to exist? We are here now. And whether the questioning of the right to exist and independence of a country, a nation, is conditional on the bombing of civilians, hospitals, kindergartens, schools and monasteries. In other words, the debate on NATO and security issues in Europe is another debate that will take place. But by no means should the barbarity that the European continent is experiencing at the moment be equated with this notion of security. Here we have the direct challenge of a state by another neighboring state, of its very existence. “And Europe is not going to tolerate this, the West is not going to tolerate it, our culture is not going to tolerate it,” he said.
“With the collapse of Syria in 2015-2016, we had 1,000,000 refugees in Europe and we said then that it was the largest population movement on the continent, after World War II. “In the four weeks of the war in Ukraine, we have 3.5 times that number, we are reaching 4,000,000 refugees trying to escape the Russian bombing,” he said.
“Immediately – and this is another step in the right direction – we have given all of them a special humanitarian visa regime that gives them access to the labor market across Europe, the right to stay, and access to Health and Education services. A very generous spirit of a united Europe towards the Ukrainian refugees. We are helping the first host countries, mainly Romania, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, to cope with this pressure. “The process is very well organized, well-organized, with Community resources and it is another moment of which I am really proud, Europe was able to organize the reception of these people in record time in a flawless way,” he explained.
For the attitude of Germany
“The German position is a tangible proof of the great tectonic nature of geopolitical changes that we will see in Europe in the coming years. In Germany, in 2.5 weeks, we went through a discussion about whether the Germans would send 3,000 helmets to the Ukrainians, in the announcement that they would proceed with $ 100 billion in defense spending and will freeze the Nord Stream 2 project. “Historic and unprecedented policy change”, said Mr. Margaritis.
He added that similar tectonic changes are occurring in other countries. “Denmark has announced that it will hold a referendum in June to lift the right of exclusion from European civil defense. The social democratic governments in Scandinavia, which has traditionally been opposed to NATO, are gearing up to apply for membership in the Alliance. Greece and Turkey, as we saw from the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting, are making an effort to re-establish Greek-Turkish relations. “We are reading the first page of tectonic changes in Europe.”
He made particular reference to the fact that Turkey and Serbia are the only exceptions to the tight front, both in terms of sanctions and in terms of UN voting. “History will be the final judge of all these attitudes of the skillfully neutral. Greece has always stood on the right side of history in all the great events, and in the two World Wars we chose, we fought, we stood up and we did not lose from that. Our Turkish friends in both wars did not fight, as did others in the neighborhood. I want to avoid the temptation of easy thinking. “History proves that skillful neutrals do not have much to gain in the medium to long term.”
For sanctions against Russia
“It will take a little longer for the consequences to be felt historic sanctions imposed by the EU and the West as a whole, but we already see that sanctions “bite”. “They are putting a lot of pressure on those areas of economic and political life in Russia that are the critical components of the Putin regime,” said the vice-president of the European Commission for the Promotion of the European Lifestyle.
“More than half of Russia’s banking assets have been frozen, the main areas of industrial activity can not continue, Western airspace for Russian aircraft has been closed, the assets of pro-regime oligarchs are frozen. “All this is felt, as is our intervention in the so-called soft power, that is, it does not matter that all Western companies are leaving, all the brands that symbolized Russia’s opening to the free market,” he stressed.
A historic opportunity for the EU ‘s energy independence
According to Schoinas, “one of the things that makes Europe’s fragmented unity remarkable is the fact that we were aware that some of the sanctions would have an impact on our own economies.”
“At the same time, however, the perception is growing that perhaps these consequences for energy are also a historic opportunity for the EU to move very fast from Russia’s omnipotence in the field of energy supply. This has already begun with the green transition. Reduce energy prices as much as possible with regulatory interventions, bring in alternative energy suppliers from the US, and from Qatar and Norway and Egypt, and complete green energy much faster. “There is no other way for Europe to depend on Russia for energy,” he said.
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