The European Union and Russia
Talking about Russia in 1949 De Gaulle said « I say that it is necessary to make Europe with for base an agreement between French people and Germans… once Europe was made on these bases… then we can turn to Russia. Then we can try , good time at all, to make whole Europe with Russia also, she had to change its political system. Here is the program of the real Europeans, here is mine”
We can remind ourselves that during the cold war, clamped between the United States of America and USSR , the Europeans wanted to constitute a kind of third block by joining. And the construction of Europe began in the fear of USSR. During this time USSR built its own system by imposing its model in the Eastern European countries, by giving birth to the Warsaw Pact and to the Comecon.
The fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the USSR changed everything. Then a new relation is born.
Our presentation suggests studying this relation.
First, I’m going to explain the foundations and the nature of the relations between Europe and Russia. Then , in a second time, Anne Sophie will study with you the economic relation between them, specially as regards the energy. I/ Two different entities which have to collaborate
Relations between the EU and Russia obey three constraints. The first is the difference of story and identity. In fact we have an Europe recently built with independent and democratic states which have scalable skills. And we have a Russia, a multinational nation fully sovereign, heiress of an authoritarian political system. The second is the proximity: Russia represents for the European Union its biggest neighbour. The European Union and Russia count 2 200 km of common borders and a part of the territory of Russian Federation - Kaliningrad - is surrounded with member states of the European Union. The third is the interdependance on all levels joining Russia and Europe and leave them no choice but to agree
This situation is complicated