One May 9 may hide another in a Europe hit hard by the return of war. On Monday, Vladimir Putin will commemorate, as every year, in Moscow, the victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany, the Great Patriotic War held up like a standard by the Russian president to set out to conquer Ukraine for a little more two months. On the same day, the Twenty-Seven will celebrate Europe Day, in memory of the declaration, in 1950, of the head of French diplomacy, Robert Schuman, considered as the founding act of Community construction.
Everything opposes the two meetings this year, while Russia is about to take control of the port city of Mariupol, after a terrible siege. Isolated by Westerners, Vladimir Putin wants to make his May 9 a show of force. As for the Twenty-Seven, they intend to take advantage of the opportunity to display their cohesion in the face of the bellicose aims of the Kremlin. Since February 24, Europe can no longer claim to be the “continent of peace”. On the contrary, it must learn to live to the rhythm of a conflict which buries the security order inherited from the post-Cold War and risks leading, even without the direct involvement of its armed forces, to a lasting confrontation with Russia.
On the side of the Twenty-Seven, the date of May 9 had been chosen well before the invasion of Ukraine to close, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Convention on the future of Europe, supposed to examine the terms of a revival of community construction, hit by repeated crises for two decades (euro zone, refugees, Brexit). The exercise, carried out at arm’s length by Emmanuel Macron, has so far remained confidential, but the war in Ukraine has fueled debates in recent weeks on the best way to unite in the face of Russian aggression. The Head of State is due to deliver a speech to this effect on Monday in Strasbourg, before flying to Berlin to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the occasion of his first visit abroad since his re-election. The conflict initiated by Russia will be at the heart of the conversations, as it reveals the Union’s vulnerabilities and poses formidable challenges, from the reception of refugees to energy and defense issues.
embryonic defense
Established before the conflict, the quest for European sovereignty accelerated with the Russian invasion, which “propelled it into a new era”, according to the formula of Stefan Lehne, researcher in international relations and former Austrian diplomat. An era when, for the first time, it assumes and finances the delivery of arms to a third country at war, Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, celebrated “the birth of geopolitical Europe”.
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