beyondukraine.euandrussiainsearchofanewrelation
beyondukraine.euandrussiainsearchofanewrelation
beyondukraine.euandrussiainsearchofanewrelation
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
112 Beyond Ukraine. EU and Russia in Search of a New Relation<br />
essential for the EU – and the whole West – to deal with many<br />
pressing issues, including the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and<br />
Afghanistan, the increasing terrorist threat, and eventually with a<br />
rise of the political and military prowess of China. Russia and the<br />
European Union have various and good reasons to enhance their<br />
cooperation, starting from Ukraine. Besides, establishing effective<br />
Euro-Russian cooperation on Ukraine may let the United States<br />
focus on the issues more relevant to its own security and economic<br />
interests.<br />
Against this background, some policy recommendations may<br />
be conveyed to the EU. Indeed, most of them may equally apply to<br />
Moscow too despite its deeply different political stance.<br />
The time is ripe to reset Eastern Partnership<br />
In order to build a new and more solid relationship with Moscow,<br />
the European Union should adopt a consistent and largely<br />
innovative policy matching its own interests with Russia’s security<br />
interests, while upholding the independence of Ukraine and other<br />
former Soviet republics. No matter how well-founded the Russian<br />
argument is, the EU cannot help but acknowledge that Moscow<br />
perceives the EaP as an antagonistic partnership. This preliminary<br />
acknowledgement is key because, from the Russian viewpoint, the<br />
eastwards expansion of the EU is nothing but a Trojan Horse for<br />
NATO enlargement. This holds true also when it comes to other<br />
Western countries. As Sean Key puts it in chapter 6 “looking<br />
ahead, the United States and its allies will likely need to make a<br />
tough choice to revoke their promise of Ukrainian membership in<br />
NATO as there is not likely any solution to the crisis that includes<br />
that outcome”.<br />
The first necessary step to reset the relationship between<br />
Brussels and Moscow is – as much as possible – a search for all<br />
possible links between the EU’s project of political integration of<br />
post-Soviet countries with Russia’s. Unfortunately, there has been<br />
no serious and systemic dialogue between the two sides for almost<br />
twenty-five years. The establishment of a frank discussion on this