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The Russians have taken great advantage of the fact that the EU is particularly weak in common foreign policy, but that is not why the role of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, was really humiliating. It’s worth seeing how Michel Barnier handled the much more difficult Brexit negotiations.
Rarely does a politician representing 500 million people find himself in such an uncomfortable position that he has to publicly explain repeatedly why he has allowed himself to be so humiliated. Josep Borrell allele and that is exactly what has happened now.
Borrell is the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, a former Spanish Foreign Minister, a classically weightless EU diplomat. The post of High Representative of the EU is by no means a particularly powerful post. In principle, Borrell’s nomination for one of the top EU posts was about defeating the second-largest family of parties in the European Parliament, the Socialists, when he was elected president of the European Commission. David sassoli their nomination for the position of EP president was the second leadership position they were awarded and, like Borrelle, he is weightless.
The fact that the Union’s common foreign policy does not really work has never been a secret. There are also systemic problems, otherwise Hungary alone could not avoid joint action almost always against the states that are less friendly to Hungary, the European Union. And they know in the rest of the world that the Union does not really have its own coherent foreign policy, so the real power remains with the Member States.
Perfect punching bag
That is why Josep Borrell gave him the perfect opportunity for Russia to kick well thoroughly. Borrell traveled to Russia for two days last week to Sergei Lavrov negotiate with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. No one understood from the start exactly why Borrell was going to Russia at this relatively tense time, and he was putting on a frustrating performance there.
The basic situation was that the foreign representative of the European Union had not visited Russia for four years. Alexei Navalny A Russian opposition activist who had previously been poisoned by the Russian state was convicted a second time in a spectacularly non-independent trial, exactly two days before the visit. However, Borrell scheduled the visit two days later, and the Lavrovs announced in advance that he would not be able to meet with the politicians he wanted or visit Navalny in prison.
Borrell would have had the opportunity to see Navalny, since several diplomats were present at the second trial of the politician. If the High Representative for Foreign Affairs really wanted to be tough, he could have gone to this trial so that the EU was represented at the highest level in a case that he had strongly condemned in the past. Later, Borrell’s staff explained this decision by saying that the High Representative did not go to court because it would have legitimized the process, accepting that it was a fair legal procedure. Unfortunately, with the visit two days later, he went even further.
Humiliation
What exactly was humiliating about what Lavrov did? On the one hand, the fact that he told Borrell, who was standing in front of him with a half smile, that Russia considers the European Union an unreliable partner, and Borrell left the statement without a word. On the other hand, Lavrov specifically announced at the joint press conference that Russia would expel three EU ambassadors for having participated in a demonstration with Navalny. Borrell said he only found out during the press conference.
The terrible thing about all this is that Borrell not only made a series of bad decisions, but he was also not spectacularly prepared. He was surprised, for example, when a journalist for the pro-government Russia Today, reviving the best Hungarian traditions, asked what the EU’s position was on US sanctions on Cuba. This issue is complicated because the EU opposes these sanctions and supports those imposed on Russia. The question dramatically embarrassed Borrell, who also said that he did not expect questions about Cuba at this press conference. Lavrov, for his part, was the one who threw the ball, who also threw it on the ground: he said that the EU was hypocritical about sanctions and supported imperialist goals.
Borrell’s visit had spectacular consequences. More than 50 Members of the European Parliament have signed the letter requesting his replacement Ursula von der Leyentől, and then the politician tried had to give explanations in a blog post and in front of the parliament. Neither was really authentic, but Ursula von der Leyen supported it. The weight of the parliamentary protest is weakened by the fact that there are three really important foreign affairs MEPs in the whole EP, and none of them signed the letter in which, incidentally, MEPs attacked the High Representative nominated by the more socialists.
System and capabilities
The fact that this shameful affair did not depend solely on Borrell’s abilities is supported by the fact that Angela Merkel Y Emmanuel macron it condemned the expulsions, but refused to change the status of North Stream II, which is crucial for the tandem Russia-Franco-German relations. support for. Therefore, the two main EU politicians have confirmed that the Union does not have a common foreign policy.
However, the current humiliating situation is clearly Borrell’s fault. This is because the European Union can negotiate hard if it wants to. Just look at how he negotiated Michel barnier, EU chief negotiator on Brexit with Britain on the way out. If the otherwise specially trained and violently negotiating British had felt such weakness, Britain would have eaten the EU for breakfast. Furthermore, in the case of Brexit, the bloc remained politically united in such a way that the Union also did not have a common foreign policy there, and various interests were strained during the negotiations. So the main problem in this case is not that the EU has no foreign policy, but the stumble of an unsuspecting diplomat.
Mark Galeotti, Also, according to the expert on Russia, Russians regularly negotiate as they just did. They walk hard during negotiations to see what the reaction is, and if the response is equally harsh, they come back the next day with a better offer. Borrell actually measured the situation there, believing that it would be enough for Russia to inflate the empty phrases that would otherwise work in the EU bubble, referring to constant dialogue.
For now, it appears Borrell may survive this mistake in the short term, but he will not survive in the long term. The High Representative for Foreign Affairs has not shown significant results since his appointment (although this can be said of almost all EU leaders), but the current Baku has also taken all their credits from diplomats from outside member states and actors within the EU. In this politically vegetative state, while the remaining time can be extended, the EU would be better off replacing Borrell.
Mainly because the current mistake will be followed by serious negotiations. EU leaders will decide in March on the new sanctions they want to impose on Russia, and Borrell will participate in the talks at the end of February. The only question is whether this matter will change something in EU policy.
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