Eastern Europe, A Region of Insecurity in the European Union_s vicinity (BOGDAN CUMPĂNAȘU, 9 May 2014)

 

Abstract: During Cold War, the region of Eastern Europe was formed by European states that were behind the Iron Curtain. Once the communism has fallen and former Warsaw's Pact members have joined EU in 2004 and 2007 along with Baltic republics, a New Eastern Europe made up by Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Caucasian Republics emerged at the border of EU. The north, west and south maritime frontiers of European Union are opposite with Eastern territorial one that are more difficult to control and defend against asymmetrical threats as: organized crime, drugs traffic, arms proliferation and illegal immigration. In this paper I intend to demonstrate that EU's policies initiated in the framework of Eastern Partnership (EaP) that aimed to bring peace in the Eastern neighborhood didn’t succeed to fulfill the desired goals. One explanation is that EU didn’t take in consideration the Russian dream of redesigning its sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. Another one is that the cultural, political and social differences between EU and its EaP partners led to the failure of the project. Thus, European Union's actions toward Eastern vicinity led to a clash between two civilizations: East and West as well as to a geopolitical competition between Russian Federation and EU over their shared neighborhood.

Keywords: security, European Union, Eastern Partnership, Ukraine, Russian Federation, soft power, hard power.

INTRODUCTION

European Union, an ambitious supra-state project, born from the ashes of World War Two was initially designed for protecting the Old Continent from a new devastating World War. Nowadays, EU became an important international actor, which “conquers” new territories, not through military means, but by “attracting” its neighboring countries through its soft power instruments. After the collapse of USSR and the fall of Iron Curtain, the Warsaw Pact members and the three Baltic soviet republics (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) sought an alternative for their national security and interests. Joining European Union, the entity that was promoting the four fundamental free of movements: of people, goods, services and capital, became an immediate aim for the ex-communist countries, ravaged after more than 50 years of bankrupt planned economy, precarious social services and violation of human rights and freedoms. That’s why in 2004 Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia and three years later, in 2007, Romania and Bulgaria embraced the European policies and values and became members of the European Union.                                                           Being the greatest economy of the world, having the values of Gross Domestic Product – GDP (12280.6 millions of euro) one of the highest in the world, the life expectancy at birth averaged at 79.2 (The 2012 Ageing Report, 2011), European Union is seen as a territory of wealth, great social services and attracts people all over the planet. The threats to the security of EU are perceived as not being traditional (as are for example the military one), but asymmetric such as: organized crime, terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, illegal immigration and Cross Border criminality. Therefore, European Union sought measures for maintaining its borders safely and keeping a favorable climate in its vicinity. That’s why in 2003, European Union launched the first European Security Strategy, where it was “in European interests that countries on European border to be well-governed. Neighbors who are engaged in violent conflict, weak states where organized crime flourishes dysfunctional societies or exploding population growth on its borders all pose problems for Europe”. Subsequently, in 2008, with the emergence of new challenges to European security like globalization, cyber-terrorism, climate change, energy security (Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy, Providing Security in a Changing World, 2008), the European Security Strategy has been modified and completed. Also, after the new dynamic of the International System in the southern neighborhood, like the Arab Spring and the continuously political changes in North Africa and in the eastern neighborhood, before and after the Vilnius Summit, it is admitted that European Union needs a different security strategy, which have to be able to cope with the new International geopolitical changes.                               

CONCLUSIONS

The present geopolitical situation in Eastern Europe is characterized by many variables and no one can predict exactly what would happen within this territory. There are many predictions, but in these circumstances, in my opinion, Europe has just opened the Pandora’s box of the post-soviet order. The two major European actors, Russia and European Union, are now in direct competition and like in the Security Dilemma, increasing one’s security means threating the other’s one. The interconnected relations between this two actors are complex and it seems that the two powers depends one of each other, but none of them renounce to their policy of exploiting the other’s vulnerabilities. Russian’s dream to become again a world power raised concerns among the EU’s member states and I personally consider that the annexation of Crimea brought Russian Federation back in Europe after 20 years of losing its ex-soviet sphere of influence.                                                                                                        

In conclusion, I believe that NATO, as a political and military alliance that has the fundamental objective of protecting the member states against military threats, became legitimate in the face of the new challenges that shrink the European security.

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