The war in Ukraine revealed the truth about Russia. Those who refused to see that Putin’s state today has imperialist tendencies must face the fact that the demons of the 19th and 20th centuries have resurfaced in Russia: nationalism, colonialism and increasingly visible totalitarianism. But the war in Ukraine also revealed the truth about Europe. Many European leaders were seduced by Vladimir Putin and are now in a state of shock.

The return of Russian imperialism should come as no surprise. Russia slowly and steadily regained its position for almost two decades, right under the watchful eye of the West. Meanwhile, the West has fallen into geopolitical lethargy instead of remaining rationally vigilant. He preferred to ignore the growing problem rather than face it.

Europe is in this state today not because it was not sufficiently integrated, but because it refused to heed the voice of truth. The voice has been coming from Poland for many years. Poland does not have a monopoly on the truth, it’s just that we are more experienced than others when it comes to relations with Russia. Polish President Lech Kaczynski was right, as was Kassandra, who predicted the fall of Troy when she said years ago that Russia would not stop at Georgia and would move on. They didn’t listen either.

The fact that Poland’s voice is ignored is just one example of a broader problem facing the EU today: the equality of individual countries is declarative. Political practice shows that the votes of Germany and France are mainly taken into account. Thus, formally we are dealing with democracy, but de facto with an oligarchy, where power belongs to the strongest. Moreover, the strong make mistakes and are not able to perceive criticism from the outside.

The safety valve protecting the EU from the tyranny of the majority is the principle of unanimity. Finding a compromise among the 27 countries whose interests so often clash can sometimes be frustrating, and a compromise may not be 100 percent satisfying. However, this ensures that every voice is heard and the decision taken meets the minimum expectations of each Member State.

Assuming that the actions of the EU depend even more than before on German decisions, which would lead to the abolition of the unanimity rule, then a brief retrospective analysis of German decisions would be useful. If in recent years Europe had always acted as Germany suggested, would we be better or worse today?

If all of Europe followed the voice of Germany, then not only Nord Stream 1, but also Nord Stream 2 would have been operating for many months. Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas, which today serves as Putin’s tool for blackmailing the entire continent, would be almost irreversible.

If all of Europe had accepted in June 2021 the proposal of the German presidency to hold an EU-Russia summit, this would have led to the recognition of Putin as a full partner and the lifting of the sanctions that were imposed against Russia after 2014. If this offer had been – then rejected by Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – had been accepted, Putin would have received assurances that the EU would not take real action to protect the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Today we would be an object, not a subject of international politics, if the European Union, instead of a tough policy of protecting its borders – a fundamental feature of state sovereignty – additionally adopted the rules for the distribution of refugees proposed in 2015. Then Putin noticed that refugees could be used as a tool in a hybrid war against the EU – and in 2021, together with Alexander Lukashenko, he attacked Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. If we had listened to the supporters of open borders in 2015, our current resilience to the next major crises would be even less.

Finally: if all of Europe sent weapons to Ukraine on the same scale and at the same pace as Germany does, the war would have ended long ago. This would have ended with a complete victory for Russia, and Europe would have been on the eve of a new war. For Russia, emboldened by the weakness of her opponents, advanced.

Today, any voice from the West about limiting the supply of weapons to Ukraine, easing sanctions, engaging both “sides” (that is, the aggressor and the victim) in a dialogue is a sign of Putin’s weakness. But Europe is much stronger than Russia.

If we really want to talk about democratic values ​​today, the time has come for a serious assessment of Europe’s conscience. For too long, the most important value for many countries has been the low price of Russian natural gas. And yet we know that it could be so low because the “blood tax” that Ukraine pays today was not added.

The defeat of imperialism in Europe is also a challenge for the European Union itself. International organizations will be able to successfully resist imperialism only if they themselves defend the fundamental values ​​- the freedom and equality of all their member states. This is especially true in relation to the European Union.

The EU is facing a growing weakness regarding the freedom and equality of all member states. We hear more and more often that it is not unanimity, but the majority, that should decide the future of the entire society. The departure from the principle of unanimity in the later spheres of EU activity brings us closer to a model in which the stronger and larger dominate the weaker and smaller.

The lack of freedom and the lack of equality are also evident in the eurozone. The adoption of a single currency does not guarantee sustainable and harmonious development. In fact, the euro introduces mechanisms of mutual rivalry, which manifest themselves, for example, in the permanent positive balance of exports of some countries, which compensate for the strengthening of their own currency by maintaining economic stagnation in other countries. In such a system, equal opportunities remain only on paper.

These deficits make the European Union especially vulnerable and weak in relations with Russian imperialism. Russia wants to turn Europe into something familiar and close to it for several centuries – an alliance of powers with jointly defined spheres of influence. It goes without saying what such an “international order” means for the European world.
More often, opportunities to protect the rights, interests or needs of medium and small states are lost when confronted with larger states. It is an imposed violation of freedoms, often carried out in the name of the supposed interests of the whole.

The common good was the value at the heart of the European project. It has been the driving force behind European integration since its inception. This is precisely what is threatened by vested interests, usually inspired by the national ego. The system puts us in an unequal struggle between the strong and the weak. There is a place in this game both for the largest countries, which have enormous economic power, and for small and medium-sized ones, which do not have this advantage. The strongest achieve political and economic dominance, while the latter are doomed to political and economic dependence. For all of them, the common good is becoming an increasingly abstract category. European solidarity becomes an empty letter, limited to the forced acceptance of the dictates of a stronger one.

To put it simply: the order of the European Union does not sufficiently protect us from foreign imperialism. In reality, the opposite is true: the institution and actions of the EU, while not free from the temptation to dominate the weaker ones, remain vulnerable to infiltration by Russian imperialism.

Therefore, I appeal to all European leaders to show courage and think with the times in mind. And we are at a turning point. Imperialist Russia can be defeated – thanks to Ukraine and our support. Victory in this war is nothing but a matter of our consistency and determination.

Thanks to equipment deliveries on a scale that, judging by the capabilities of the West, is still relatively small, Ukraine has begun to change the direction of this war. Russia continues to attack, sow death and destruction, commit heinous war crimes – but for almost half a year, the morale of Ukrainians has not collapsed. The morale of the Russian army, on the contrary, as shown by intelligence data, is becoming weaker and weaker. The army suffers heavy losses. Stockpiles of weapons and other equipment are not inexhaustible, and their production will be increasingly difficult for the industry affected by the sanctions.

Therefore, we must support Ukraine in its struggle to return the territories taken from it and force Russia to retreat. Only then will real dialogue and a meaningful end to this war be possible, and not just a temporary stop before the next attack. Only such an end will mark our victory.
We also need to defeat the threat of imperialism within the EU, we need a deep reform that puts the common good and equality at the forefront of the principles of the Union. This will not happen without a change of perspective – it is the Member States, not the EU institutions, that should determine the direction and priorities of the EU’s action, as the institutions are made for the states, not the other way around. The basis of cooperation should always be the development of consensus, and not the dominance of the strongest over the rest.

Today’s conditions force us to think in a different context. We must have the courage to admit that the EU has not handled the Covid crisis and the war properly. The problem, however, is not that we are moving too slowly towards completion, but that we must accelerate this process. The problem is that this path itself is wrong. Instead of taking two steps forward, sometimes it’s better to take a step back and look at the problem from the outside. The prospect of a return to the principles that govern the European Union seems the most reliable. The goal is not to undermine them, but to strengthen them, not build vertically on them. Europe needs hope more than ever. And hope can only be found in getting back to basics, not in strengthening the institutional superstructure.

* Mateusz Morawiecki – Prime Minister of Poland