The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a new think tank of the European Union (EU), published last Wednesday, or on November 7, its first-ever report entitled "A Power Audit of EU 27-Russia Relations Analysis", which revealed that EU disunity allowed Moscow to dominate. The report set out some initial ideas to strengthen their unity for dealing with Russia.
The aggregate economy of the EU is 15 times that of Russia, and its overall military budget is 10 times greater and combined population 3.5 times bigger, notes the ECFR report, which draws on data gathered by a team of researchers, experts and scholars alike, based on the relations of their countries with Russia in the spheres of political, economical and military ties. So the report can help "reflect the status quo of the present EU-Russian relations".
Within the EU, there are at least five camps or groupings, when it comes to deal with Russia, enunciated the ECFR report, ranging from the "Trojan horse" countries, strategic partners and the friendly and cool partners to the "new Cold warriors": the "Trojan horse" countries refer to Cyprus and Greece; the "strategic partners" imply France, Germany, Italy and Spain; the friendly pragmatist nations are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Luxemburg, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia; the "cool pragmatists" indicate Czech, Demark, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and Britain; whereas Lithuania and Poland are cited as the "new Cold warriors". Due to the numerous camps divided on their Russia ties, the EU-Russian relationships has been designated the realm of the greatest diversity, the report acknowledged.
The reason for the"division" of EU members toward Russia is extricate and complex. Greece and Cyprus are connected closed to it as they have much to share with their cultural origins, geopolitics and economic/trade interests; Russia is an arms supplier to Greece, and 70 percent of the natural gas Greece uses imports from Russia; Cyprus has forged close economic and trade ties with Russia, and Russia also support it on the northern Cyprus issue. So both nations are willing and ready to serve as the "Trojan horse" to work for its interests inside EU.
Meanwhile, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have forged their respective "special bilateral ties" with Russia, so that the EU common policy could mean nothing but "an empty shell". The 10 "friendly pragmatist" nations have placed their commercial interest above the political objective of EU, and the nine "cool pragmatist" nations are relatively more daring to criticize Russia on such issues as one concering the human rights than other EU members though they, too, pursue their own commercial interests. In contrast, Lithuania and Poland have, however, come out in an open opposition to Russia and readily use their veto power for blocking EU-Russia talks.
Such a "division" has made EU member nations hesitate to unite and join forces on a number of tough issues. On the contrary, the state of division among EU members enables Russia to exert a tremendous impact on the EU. Under such circumstances, the call for "unity against Russia" has turned more and more high-pitched inside the EU. Apart from other vital measures, Russia has adeptly resorted to its energy diplomacy to deal with the EU members one by one for foiling the joint EU energy strategy; on the issue regarding the independence of Kosovo, its firm opposition in the U.N. headquarters has made EU unable to do what it desires; and Russia has warded the EU off Caucasus and Central Asia. In short, its trying diplomatic endeavor has made some EU nations feel all the more in need of Russia.
In a bid to cope with Russia, the ECFR was launched in October by some former ranking government officials, business leaders and researchers of EU member nations to promote a more integrated European foreign policy in support of shred European values and interests and assure the power prop inside the EU. It represents a vital, important opportunity to table the EU-Russia report which contains a proposal to "recruit Russia" gradually and turn to its tough, resolute measures for dealing with Russia's hard stance. Its long-term objective toward Russia is to bring about a free and democratic neighbor at its doorway while its medium goal is to encourage Russia to "abide by laws," so as to make it a reliable partner.
The present state of affairs with the EU is, nevertheless, to go on talking enthusiastically and endlessly about the shared values and to occasionally work for these shared values but to retrain from addressing the theme of power, noted the report. So it is not so easy to attain the above-mentioned objectives. In fact, the interests of the EU nations are rather intricate in the current volatile global situation. Hence, the report further explained, it remains a crucial issue whether the ECFR report would win the approval of the EU, let alone unite its member nations to work to change the present reality with the EU.
By People's Daily Online
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