Martin Schulz: Europeans are losing confidence in EU

Today, in the framework of his speech at the 52th Security Conference in Munich, the European Parliament chairman Martin Schulz stated that a loss of confidence of the population in international and European institutions is being felt in Europe, which is a separate crisis in addition to the existing ones, the head of the European bureau of Vestnik Kavkaza, Orhan Sattorov reports.

According to the head of the European Parliament, the biggest problem now facing Europe is that it has forgotten how to build a postwar world. "We created the European community to solve global problems, using transnational solutions. It was a reaction to the horrors of the Second World War. Now we have created a globalized world and large-scale crises have begun to emerge. Europe, at some point, decided to play a role in resolving these conflicts, in Ukraine and in Syria," Schultz said.

As usual, he blamed Russia for European problems. "Eurosceptics, Islamophobes, homophobes, are well represented in the European Parliament, I listen to them regularly and I can draw an analogy between the rhetoric of the Russian parties and theirs. The European Union depends on its members, and the strategy "my country first, and then we'll see" is wrong, the spirit of the European idea disappears in this case, and the migration crisis only confirms this. There is a process of de-solidarization in the EU countries' societies, and now it reaches government level, which really concerns me," the head of the European parliament stated.

At the same time, he appealed to the leaders to convince their populations that national decisions must not be above transnational ones. "Our strength is in our unity and our weakness is in our disunity," Martin Schulz stressed.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda informed that the strengthening of NATO's presence in his country and in the whole of Eastern Europe is the most important thing for them. "Of course, the crisis of migrants and the UK's plans to leave the EU are serious challenges, but our military component is also extremely important right now. We see what is happening in Ukraine. I believe that the strengthening of NATO's presence in our part of Europe is a natural consequence of the opening of the Alliance to the Eastern European countries. For a long time NATO's border was the border of Germany, but Europe has changed, Poland became a member of the Alliance, and the next step is to expand NATO's presence in Poland, the Baltic States, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria," he stated.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite agreed with Martin Schulz that Europeans are gradually losing confidence in international institutions."We do not adhere to deadlines and do not keep our promises, we do not solve the security issues, issues with the flow of refugees, do not correct our mistakes and we are late with decisions. Issues of security and instability originate in third countries, and the statements by Russian officials about the fact that there is a "second cold war" are not entirely true, we are in a hot phase in Ukraine and Syria," she pointed out.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko directly stated that Russia and Ukraine "live in completely different universes," despite the centuries-old common history and many cultural and humanitarian ties between the two countries, as well as Ukrainians and all the peoples inhabiting the Russian Federation. Addressing the heads of EU member states and European institutions of power, he again blamed the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin personally, around whom "an alternative Europe is unfolding," for all Ukrainian troubles. In this regard, he urged the participants to "fight for our European principles together, in order to get out of the deep crisis facing Europe" and assured them that Kiev is fighting "not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for European and global security."