The New York Times: Europe’s Center of Gravity Shifts East

Poland and the Baltics made the moral case for their support Ukraineto fill the void left at the beginning of the war, when traditional European leaders such as France And the Germans are paralyzed. But the war also brought new necessities and energy for EU expansion into the Western Balkans and beyond, with bids for Ukraine and MoldovaHe writes in the American Gazette.

According to The New York Times, pressure from eastern and central Europe was decisive “in making the decision” after months of controversy and resistance “to deliver Western tanks to Ukraine. The acceleration of the war is changing the balance of power in Europe, whose center is moving away from the so-called old Europe, which was Appreciates and cares about relations with Moscow, turning east and north, where memories of the Soviet occupation are still fresh, along with an unwillingness to give up part of the restored sovereignty of Brussels – we read in the article “The New York Times”.

The war has made French President Emmanuel Macron’s aspirations for an “independent” European defense seem hollow, given the much-enhanced role For this And the United States, “The New York Times” notes.

“Eastern countries are not big fans of defending the European Union, they want the United States and NATO,” Jana Puglierin of the Berlin office of the think tank ECFR told the New York Daily. She added that Germany also wants to strengthen transatlantic relations, so it will be difficult for France to gather allies who will support its proposed defense policy.

Dutch historian Luuk van Midlaer believes that from the start of the war Poland and Hungary were treated more leniently by Brussels in the ongoing dispute over the rule of law. “Politically and morally, Poland is off the hook because of its role as a front-line country supplying weapons and hosting refugees,” Van Midlaer said.

Hans Kundani of the Chatham House think tank sees a psychological shift in Europe. In his opinion, “the Poles and Central Europeans feel more confident, while the French and Germans are more defensive.” But as he emphasized, strength in the EU depends on the economy and population of a particular country, so he is not convinced that “self-confidence and a high moral level are enough to do great things in Brussels.”

– A lot of problems in the European Union do not concern Russia and the defensive war, and on these and other issues the balance of forces has not changed much. Van Midlaer commented that France and Germany remain at the center of economic discussions.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Chancellor of Germany Olaf Schulz, who had been in office for less than three months, and President Macron hardly knew each other. According to van Midlaer, the lack of proper close relations at this point created a gap in European leadership that the Central and Eastern European countries were “aggressively” trying to fill.