BUILDING EUROPEAN CONSENSUS ON ANTI-RUSSIAN SANCTIONS: ECONOMY VERSUS POLITICS

Abstract

Introduction. The decision of the European Union to impose sanctions on Russia, its largest economic partner, neighbor and energy supplier, has proved to be an unprecedented case and has marked a new stage of development of the European foreign policy toolkit. Therefore, it seems relevant to investigate the process of coordination of positions of the European states on the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions and particular restrictive measures. The article is devoted to the distribution of roles in the process of the elaboration of the consolidated sanctions policy of the Western countries towards Russia in 2014. Methodology. The theoretical foundation of the study is the realist paradigm in its neoclassical version. The methodological basis includes the systemic method of the international relations analysis, comparative an evolutionary approaches. The data were analyzed with the method of traditional documents review, as well as the method of event-analysis of a particular case based on data clusterization on certain criteria. Results. The contemporary procedure specifics of collective decision-making on the issue of sanctions in the European Union are described. The distribution of roles and interests of the European states towards anti-Russian sanctions in early 2014 is reviewed. Germany’s leading position is analyzed in balancing between various stances of the European states and the USA and their polar views on economic issues. Conclusion. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has proved to contribute the most into the elaboration of the middle-ground American-European position. On the one hand, she has tried to iron out the harsh American position, on the other hand, she has made great effort to achieve European consensus, and at the same time, she had to overcome domestic discrepancies.