Is Europe really forged through crisis? Pandemic EU and the Russia – Ukraine war

ABSTRACT

The European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed changes and continuity in the structure and the functioning of the European project. In lieu of a conclusion to the Special Issue, this article discusses what those lessons tell us about how Europe responds to the following crisis. We compare European responses to the pandemic to those that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We observe more differences than similarities. The same actors do not always play the central role, solidarity among Europeans is sometimes more challenging to engineer, and the requirements to make the overall project more resilient can point in different directions. Such findings show that any argument that Europe is forged through crisis is unlikely to tell us much about what Europe is or where it may be headed. In that sense, the EU is a sui generis multi-level, multi-faceted actor that can change shape in response to events.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The authors are grateful for financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada that facilitated the funding of a workshop at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute, which cofounded and hosted the workshop where an earlier version of this paper was presented. The authors also benefitted from presenting the paper at the European Union Studies Association meetings in Miami. Adrienne Héritier and Joseph Jupille gave excellent comments. The usual disclaimer applies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Veronica Anghel

Veronica Anghel is the Lecturer in Risk in International Politics and Economics at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She is a Fellow at the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Center at the European University Institute.

Erik Jones

Erik Jones is the Director of the Robert Schuman Center of Advanced Studies at the European University Institute and Professor of European Studies and International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) – on extended leave.