It is clear that if Ukraine had been admitted to join NATO, Russia would not have been able to attack it and today we would not be forced to face a war in the heart of Europe. The speech by Francesco D’Arrigo, director of the Italian Institute for Strategic Studies
Europe is going through a phase of extraordinary gravity, threatened by Putin’s war and the consequent humanitarian and economic crisis, which requires supranational political, diplomatic and military governance European.
It is evident that if Ukraine had been admitted to join NATO, Russia could not have attacked it and today we would not be forced to face a war in the heart of democratic and free Europe.
The 1992 Maastricht Treaty launched the European Monetary Union, which gave birth to the Euro, the most ambitious European project to date after the 1950 integration process, is not enough to defend us from the deliberate aggression of Putin’s Russia to the fundamental principles of Europe. Today, in addition to the great solidarity between the States, which is the hallmark of Europe, it is urgent to establish a new model of European defense and security, in complementarity with NATO and with a strategy capable of responding to geopolitical, climatic, technological and cyber challenges .
For a Europe grappling with the changed strategic scenario, and with an ever wider spectrum of threats and challenges – defending the status quo is no longer enough. The EU must provide its citizens with the necessary tools to face both the renewed challenge represented by Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the economic and military rise of China, which are allied with the strategic goal of establishing a new geopolitical and geo-economic order. global.
These days Europe is proving that it is not, as Putin thought, lacking in strength, although the democratic dynamics of the various countries that make it up can give this impression. In reality, the European Union is the largest economic market in the world, European regulations and standards produce profound effects beyond the continent by deploying great political and economic influence that translates into a form of tangible power. The sanctions imposed on Russia demonstrate this.
The EU institutions are a reality capable of exercising considerable economic power, but it would be desirable that the individual nation states transfer further powers to a European Federal Government in matters of foreign policy, defense, health policy, the environment and energy and telecommunications.
On the defense side, progress has been slow and often hampered by concerns stemming from the erosion of national sovereignty. The different strategic national cultures, the interests of individual countries and above all the implications on national security and industrial repercussions have represented an obstacle to the integration of the European defense system. Furthermore, a Europe without Great Britain will not be able to express an integral security and defense policy.
Today, we are in a constantly evolving multipolar geopolitical context and Europe must innovate and equip itself with a new security model, investing resources, deploying conventional and nuclear forces and weapons to guarantee peace and freedom to its citizens, in defense of moral values. and the rules on which to base the economy and democratic institutions but, above all, capable of expressing a policy of peace through force, aimed at convincingly demonstrating that it has a strategy, the ability and the will to counter enemy aggressors of freedom.
It is possible to transform the EU from a world economic power into a full-fledged political power, assuming a much more incisive role in the chessboard of global geopolitics
A constituent phase of the European Parliament would be desirable to elaborate the Constitution of a confederation of nation-states to be submitted for the approval of the
citizens
. Western culture in defense of freedom against autocracy.
A powerful Europe to respond to current challenges, first of all to find a diplomatic way to stop Russia’s war against Ukraine.
