EU summit a chance to add ambition to Europe’s unity

The war in Ukraine has shown that only by acting together can the European Union hope to remain an effective player. At the June 23-24 EU summit, the European Council should agree to establish a 'Wise Wo|men Group' tasked with identifying core policy priorities and governance reforms.

(Left to right) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet in Kyiv's Mariinsky Palace on Thursday. The crisis in Ukraine has shown that only by acting together can the EU hope to remain an effective player. Picture: Ludovic Marin

The European Union has reacted faster, more decisively, and with greater unity to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine than to any previous crisis. 

Together with its allies, the EU and its member states have provided important military, economic, and humanitarian support to the Ukrainian government and put severe economic pressure on the Kremlin to stop its atrocities. But the difficulties the union faced in imposing a common oil embargo against Russia reveal differences among national governments that also reflect diverging views on how to deal with the Zeitenwende we have been experiencing since February 24.