EUROPEAN COMMISSION – SPRING 2022: DANGEROUS CHANGE OF MOOD

Abstract

Changes in the current rhetoric of the European Commission (EC) have been revealed by reviewing the content of its press releases and measures taken to respond to the Russian special operation in Ukraine. The author of the article considers these changes dangerous, undermining the ideological foundations of European integration – openness and partnership, as well as standards and norms of the functioning of the Internal Market. An explanation of the current activity of the EC is offered: official Brussels uses the Ukrainian crisis to activate the economic conjuncture, as well as to increase the effectiveness or cover up the miscalculations of its policy in other areas such as green transition, strategic autonomy, global leadership. The EC's attempt to introduce criminal liability through European legislation for circumvention by European companies and countries of anti-Russian sanctions adopted at the EU level was tracked (the corresponding proposal was made on May 25). Two hypotheses have been formulated. First: the EC, whose existential goal is to expand its powers, de facto sees itself not only as a market regulator, but also as an EU power structure, increasingly coordinating the real European law enforcement agencies Europol, Eurojust and Frontex, which seems to be an equally dangerous trend for the future of European integration. Second: activation of the conjuncture and economic growth in the EU are impossible in conditions of a decrease in the resource and market base.

Keywords

• european comission
• russia's special military operation in ukraine
• sanctions
• communications policy
• internal market
• principle of mutual recognition of professional qualifications
• eu law enforcement agencies
• list of crimes against the eu