Anti-European and Russophobian Tendencies Within the European Union

Abstract

The Preamble of the Treaty of the European Union (TEU) explicitly refers to “the historic importance of the ending of the division of the European continent and the need to create firm bases for the construction of the future Europe.” In this context Russian Nobel prize winner Gorbatchov repeatedly propagated the vision of a “common European house,” which was later on taken up and modified by Putin’s idea of a “common economic space from Lisbon to Vladivostok.” Yet, EU and NATO, strongly influenced by US and several European russophobian attitudes, used the so-called Crimea crisis as a pretext to impose sanctions against the Russian Federation and, finally, create political tensions that are most regrettably reminiscent of the former Cold War. Consequently, considering additionally the obligation to hold a visa for any movement of persons between EU and RF, this political development marks a fateful “new stage in the process of European integration undertaken with the establishment of the European Communities.” In particular, the quoted sanctions demonstrate arbitrariness due to the double standard in comparison with quite a variety of other situations throughout the world and, therefore, must be qualified as contradictory to the “values” under Art. 2 TEU.