The State of EU-Russian Relations: Have they Passed the Point of no Return?
In 2014 multiple chronic problems in the EU-Russia relations grew into an open political conflict.
The crisis in Ukraine served as its trigger, but rivalry in the common neighbourhood was certainly not the only source of the emerging confrontation. Unfortunate as it is, we are now witnessing a paradigm shift: Russia no longer views Europe as a role model and does not have the interest it once had in the relationship of integration with the EU.
Regardless of whether and what kind of an immediate compromise could be sought, this will have practical implications in all fields, and the EU will have to take it into full account in its dealings with Russia.
Every year, Maastricht University and the City of Maastricht jointly organise this lecture in commemoration of Robert Schuman and the Treaties of Rome (1957) and Maastricht (1992). Schuman (1886-1963) was the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of the European Community of Coal and Steel, the antecedent of the modern EU.
About the lecturer
Arkady Moshes is the director of the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia programme at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Helsinki, and an associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House, London.
He is an expert on Russia-EU relations and the domestic and foreign policies of Belarus and Ukraine. He has published extensively on Eastern Europe, Russia and Russia-EU relations, and has contributed to books like Political Trends in the New Eastern Europe: Ukraine and Belarus andRussia as a Network State: What Works in Russia When State Institutions Do Not?
