Editorial To Vima: Time for Europe to change

Vladimir Putin’s blitzkrieg against Ukraine, not unlike a previous one eight decades ago, forced Europe to revisit its worst nightmares and overturned all the certainties of our era, reminding the world that “linear evolution and guaranteed prosperity” are inconceivable. Unexpected courses and unorthodox events usually determine our lives.

That requires keen foresight on the part of self-respecting organised societies and states.

Undoubtedly, after the ongoing subjugation operations and the de facto annexation of Ukraine by Russia, the world became more fragile and dangerous.

Let us not underestimate that the Ukrainian crisis inter alia gave rise to a nuclear threat that was unabashedly used by the Russian hegemon in his cold-hearted address, with which he set the Russian war machine in motion.

The lines of continuity over the past decade – the inviolability of borders and the abandonment of hegemonic practices that were the foundation of the post-war structure of security – were lost at the blink of an eye.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a return to the dark days of the Cold War seems unavoidable and circumstances mandate a re-ordering of forces and alliances.

This is all the more true in Greece’s neighbourhood, which is rife with similar revisionist ideas and similar patterns of behaviour by countries with authoritarian leaderships.

Given all that, a re-ordering and reconstruction of Europe, which depends on the US militarily and on Russia for energy, is in order.

As was demonstrated, Europe’s intervention in the Ukrainian predicament was at best limited or even non-existent, when it was confronted with serious repercussions from the evolving, multi-faceted crisis.

Clearly, Europe must act and adapt immediately. It cannot carry on as a loose and lagging union in the face of new threats and needs. The defence of Europe cannot depend on the good will of the Americans or a “dead” Nato, as French President Emmanuel Macron has described it. Moreover, it must not be fractured and dependent on a single source of energy.

Greece has many reasons to fervently propose and pursue a rebirth and re-institution of the EU.

Just as the public health crisis presented an opportunity for progress and expediting delayed changes – including a mutualisation of EU debt and borrowing on behalf of member-states in order to support the Recovery Fund – so too the current combined energy and security crisis is an opportunity to expedite the deepening of European unification.

Under these new conditions, Europe must create a common budget, a common energy front, and a strong defence mechanism that can deter and confront threats of war.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took a step in this direction.

At the last EU summit he proposed an energy fund with revenues from pollution exhausts. He could expand this initiative and insist on the creation of a common European budget and a euro-army.

Greece can only benefit from such initiatives.