The European Union today: between peace and crisis

Abstract

The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2012 to the European Union (EU) in recognition of its contribution, and that of its predecessors in the European Communities,1 to ‘the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe’ (The Norwegian Nobel Committee 2012: 1). Thanks in part to its stabilizing role, the EU had ‘helped to transform most of Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace’, the Committee wrote (ibid.). The decision came in the midst of economic and social turmoil in the EU. Some commentators interpreted it as a way for the Nobel Committee to prop up the EU in a time of crisis, taking the long view of its achievements, rather than focusing on its contemporary difficulties. This book comes at a time of challenging events in the EU and its neighbourhood, which have ramifications not just for Europe but also for the wider world. The unfolding of the Ukrainian crisis has pitted the EU vision of an Eastern Partnership against that of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)2 whose name and institutional arrangements resemble, if only superficially, those of the EU and its earlier incarnations. Being a member of neither the EU nor these Russian-led regional organizations, Ukraine has been torn between EU and Russian security needs and ambitions. It was the suspension of preparations for the signing of an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement by President Viktor Yanukovych and his government with a view to avoiding detrimental economic reprisals from Russia that originally triggered the pro-European demonstrations of the Euromaidan. But although Ukrainian academics could greet the Euromaidan as ‘the largest ever pro-European rally in history’ and see the prospect of Ukraine’s economic integration with the EU as a way of expanding the EU market