Tehran, IRNA – The European Union (EU) was formed in the post-war sphere and tried to act as a powerful, independent economic-political union. However, the EU is still a follower of the United States in strategic issues and is struggling with the Ukraine crisis. This has revealed the union’s weaknesses more than before.
The EU is now an economic-political union with 27 member states, but its establishment can be traced back to the European Economic Community (EEC) which was created in 1957 through the Treaty of Rome between six European countries.
The EEC accepted new members over time becoming bigger and bigger and finally transformed into the present-day European Union by the Maastricht Treaty in 1993.
The EU introduced a single currency in 1999 which was named Euro. It has replaced national currencies in 17 member states of the EU. The union has now 450 million citizens and 21 of its member states are also members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Customs union, single currency, European Central Bank (ECB), European Parliament, European Council, European Commission, common agricultural policy, common trade policy, common fishery policy, Schengen Agreement on visa, and common foreign policy are, among other things, the factors that distinguish the EU from other unions.
EU trilemma of divergence, dependence, bandwagoning
Bandwagoning policy: Contrary to their initial cause of independence from the United States, the EU leaders have been following Washington so much that some have doubted the regional organization’s single, independent identity. Surprisingly, nearly 30 European countries have failed to play a role in the international arena at the US’ level.
Divergence: The EU’s convergence wishes vanished in 2016 when Britons voted yes to exit the union. Some experts saw Britain as the US’ Trojan Horse whose exit would remove hurdles against the EU, but the divorce was actually indicative of the convergence’s fragility. The same scenario could recur for any other EU member state any minute.
Dependence: One-sided dependence is another feature of the EU which has become clearer than before; sharply manifested in its dependence on oil, gas, and power.
The continent which was making up political, economic, cultural, and scientific prescriptions for other countries has been stuck so much in the Ukraine crisis that its first and foremost priority has become supplying warm water, power, and gas.
The EU meets 40 percent of its gas demand through imports from Russia. It is estimated that Europeans pay one billion euros a day to Russia for energy. But the EU’s dependence on Russia is not limited to gas imports. Russia supplies 27 percent of the EU’s oil and 47 percent of its coal.
A farewell to welfare
As the Ukraine crisis lingers, the global energy price appreciation has derived inflation rates in the EU gas sector as high as 40 percent, pushing the total inflation to approach double digits.
The energy sector inflation rate has skyrocketed in some European countries as high as 80 percent, with no depreciation perspective in the near future.
As seen in the chart above, the 51-percent increase in gas price has had the biggest contribution to the soaring inflation rate in the EU’s energy sector, followed by fluid fuels with 45 percent and power with 30 percent.
Energy carriers’ price appreciation in Europe has delivered the severest damage to the countries dependent on energy imports. The highest inflation rate in the energy sector has been recorded in the Netherlands with 80 percent and Belgium and Britain respectively with 70 percent and 65 percent.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently warned that the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia entail the risk of energy shortage in Europe and an energy crisis could bring Europe to its knees.
Support packages to silent opposition
Unprecedented inflation and unbridled price appreciation, especially in the energy sector on brink of cold seasons, have frightened European citizens, taking them to the streets to protest the EU’s and NATO’s policies.
In their view, Europe is paying, forcefully at times, for accompanying US’ anti-Russian sanctions. Wide protests in different countries, including Britain, France, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Germany, are in response to NATO and Western leaders’ uncalculated measures.
European leaders have tried to help their peoples who have never been this poor thanks to the unprecedented energy crisis and inflation through support packages.
Amid the war in Ukraine, we have a not prosperous but needy union that is handing out support packages to pass the widespread crisis and the cold winter. But the packages don’t seem to be solving the EU’s energy dependence, nor does it appear to help the people with their livelihood problems.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
