The return of war to Europe: an opportunity for geopolitical Union in EU?

With the war of aggression unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, the European continent has entered a "Zeitenwende", what President Putin calls a "special military operation" constituting "a strategic turning point of the first order in the history of Europe and perhaps the world" ¹⁾ . These words may even seem a little weak in the face of "the greatest conflict in Europe since the Second World War (which) turns out to be a Kunderian war" ²⁾ , if we remember that Milan Kundera has shown for about forty years in his essay "A Kidnapped West" that the European center of gravity would certainly be called upon to move towards the east ³⁾ , consequently towards Ukraine ⁴⁾ .

This "unjustifiable, unprovoked and illegal war of aggression", in the words of the EU Council, constitutes in particular a clear violation of the Charter of the United nations and of the peremptory norm of which is the prohibition of armed aggression against a State. It also represents a fight for European freedoms and values such as democracy, the rule of law, freedom of expression, as well as the freedom to forge one's own destiny, ⁵⁾ even though some of these values are being called into question by certain member States ⁶⁾ . Finally, it is destabilizing for the entire European continent, because it calls into question the very foundation of the European order, and even the international order.

The member States of the European Union are therefore facing a common enemy following the Russian war of aggression. This constitutes a big change for the European project, "which is undergoing a new existential crisis after the repeated crises of recent years (EUrozone crisis, migration crisis, Brexit, Covid-19 pandemic ⁷⁾ and which once again seems to confirm Jean monnet's prophecy that Europe would be built through crises and would be the sum of the solutions provided to these crises" ⁸⁾ .

This return of war in Europe allows - if one can say so - the European Union to achieve a kind of catharsis, and it is not wrong to say that it has begun "a new life in a new context". Indeed, "the conflict in Ukraine, already a driving force in the transformations of the Union and its policies, can the opportunity for new European development, a real new beginning made necessary by external circumstances" ⁹⁾ . The Union is ready to enter a new era thanks to a strengthening of its integration and its power, which is imposed by the external events ( ). In addition, the new geopolitical situation emerging from this war of Russian aggression destabilizes the European continent and, as a result, the entry of the Union into " " implies that it looks into its reorganization and the new status quo of the European continent ( ).

After the months of war, one thing is clear. Faced with President Putin's imperial ambition, Europe has become aware "that it has no alternative but to oppose its unity to Russian aggression: the war in Ukraine reveals Europe's weaknesses, but also its opportunities, particularly in order to assert - finally - its power" ¹⁰⁾ . It is therefore no exaggeration to say that Russian aggression could result in an acceleration of European construction and allow the Union to take off politically ( ) and, even if there are many reservations, to increase its strategic independence ( ).