Good morning! It looks like Europe doesn’t know what it wants. Even if it does, it seems it doesn’t dare to say it out loud. While Ukraine and the Balkans have been waiting for the signals of hope, Brussels sends only empty phrases. This column is about a continent that no longer chooses sides or allies, but only postpones its decisions.
Has the EU missed its chance?
The EU more often knows only what it doesn’t want – they don’t want Trump, Putin, another war. And what does it want? And what does it offer to those fighting and dying in its name? The war in Ukraine was a perfect moment for Europe to grow. That war started because Putin had refused to allow them to start the integration process. Euromaiden began for that same reason if you remember well. That war happened because the Ukrainians hoped for a better life in Europe. Not in 2022 but back in 2014.
Remember how Georgian protesters stood defiantly in front of water cannons, displaying the European flag in their hands.
Instead of proving it can be a true geopolitical player, the EU often ends up looking more like a volunteer fire brigade constantly putting out economic and political fires. And there’s always a patient in need of a treatment. There’s always someone in crisis. Greece drowning in debt, Romania nearly electing a Manchurian candidate for president.
The war in Ukraine, instead of becoming a wake-up call and a chance, turned out into a disaster – another problem swept under the rug while using worn-out phrases and ceremonial visits.
EU leaders have even failed to benefit from the Brexit fallout. Instead, after Cameron and Farage, we now find ourselves fearing Fico and Orbán. While European bureaucrats tick boxes and look for ways to open or close yet another chapter in negotiations with the Balkan countries, the number of people in their capitals hoping not only for an end to EU enlargement but for the end of the EU itself continues to grow.
In Montenegro, the European narrative is still alive – it stands on a fragile ground, but is alive. The story about ‘the most advanced country in integration’ has become ‘style over substance’. Reforms happen more on paper than in institutions, while the EU offers everything except the most important thing: clear messages, timeline and the political will. The question is no longer what the candidate countries want but whether Europe has the capacity to accept them. And, more importantly, does it know why it should do it?
Countries like Ukraine and Moldova are offered promises packed with uncomfortable messages about enlargement fatigue. The Balkans are served expert reports and reform roadmaps, without any real sense of urgency. As if Brussels still believes that the time is on its side. It is not.
In terms of economy, Europe may well be a giant, but politically and in terms of security, it remains a dwarf hiding under America’s cloak. The fear that the White House might not always be a reliable ally lingers from one administration to the next. And fear often stains one’s reputation. Instead of taking steps toward serious reform, the looming specter of recession hangs overhead. In France, the government is falling apart, while the freshly convicted Le Pen is waiting for her chance. In Germany, the AfD is also waiting for its moment.
The EU’s policy of appeasement and reassurance toward Putin led to war. Now, the European leaders demonstrate the same submissiveness to the US president. There’s no one willing, or able, to take responsibility and step forward as the address for dialogue. Who can present themselves as a guarantor of stability in a time of unpredictable geopolitical storms? The EU was supposed to be all of that. Did we expect too much from it?
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily the opinions or views of the CdM news team)
