Sanctions on Russia - European Parliament bypassed

In the absence of a qualified public political debate, the restrictions in banking, technology and the arms embargo on Russia have provoked a whirlwind of speculation in European mass media attempting to assess the economic impact. The measures are supposedly to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been appointed by the West as responsible for the crash of MH17 and the turmoil in south-east Ukraine, and seem to be imposed in haste by the US on the EU as a confirmation of loyalty. Undertaken to undermine Putin's powers, the sanctions will hit simultaneously the Russian, European and global economies.

Next to their economic effects, the sanctions have a moral impetus, while attributing a central role in the Ukrainian drama to Kremlin players, it sounds like a pretty demoralizing strategy, diminishing Kiev to an object of the manipulations of  Moscow. This attitude distracts attention from the crisis of the Ukrainian statehood, undermined by confrontations within the ruling elite, lined by endemic corruption over two decades, provoking outbursts in the Orange and Maidan revolutions. Creating an illusion of a possibility to fix the grave problems of Ukrainian statehood by Putin's magic wand, the EU continues to gamble, this time with sanctions, instead of enhancing negotiations to reconcile the foes, and in so doing devastating Ukraine.

Furthermore, an ongoing conflict of Ukrainians divided over their future has no chance to be resolved while the wresting of influential international players continues. Each day of Kiev's anti-terrorist operation (ATO) against the rebels of the south-east increases the death toll, enlarging the gap between the adversaries. Meanwhile, the EU is not living up to its reputation of a Nobel Prix laureat, silently observing Kiev's leaders pave their way into the European family with the corpses of rebels. The buzz of the Brussels sanctions and the noise of Kiev's shelling - neither resolve what is of prime significance - Ukraine's statehood crisis.

Ironically, blamed for being an autocrat, President Putin appears to have almost a hundred individuals as close associates, influencing his strategic decisions, including Duma' chairman Sergey Naryshkin in the first ranks - one of the major protagonists of the notorious EU 'powerful Russians' blacklist. On the contrary, the EU claiming to be a champion of democracy while taking the decision on sanctions, did not consult the president of the European Parliament - a summer pause cannot pass as an excuse.

Neither the Council nor the Commission bothered to request an opinion from the institute designed to counterbalance the powers of the heads of state and government in the EU Council. For the multi-billion losses the sanctions threaten to European economies, MEPs could have interrupted their summer holidays, as in exceptional situations the national Parliaments do to have a say on a trade war which will cost multitudes of jobs leading to the rapid enlargement of the already 26 million strong EU army of the unemployed.

The crash of the MH17 has become the most costly catastrophe in the history of aviation, affecting more than half-a-billion people for a crime that is too politicized to distinguish facts from fiction. A chorus of experts competing in estimations consider the €40 billion year loss for the EU economies due to sanctions - this number, coined by the Eurocrats, is on the conservative side. For comparison, previously the European unemployed youth received a fund of €6bn for the next seven years.

Next to short-term losses, there are no answers to the strategic concerns: in case sanctions on Russia are designed similarly to those on Iran, what will happen to the European economy in the long term as a result of this vendetta? It took almost a decade to gain some progress from the Iranians. How long will it take in the case of Russia, whose level of integration into the EU economy is high, as a result of a half-a-century efforts of generations of European politicians?

Used to their opinions being bypassed by the Brussels bureaucracy while shaping core policies, citizens have observed an ultimate act of sacrifice of a share of their own economic growth and jobs for the fictitious good of a third party, Ukraine, without even a formal request for Europeans' consent. The avoidance of opinions became chronic after the 'No' vote for the European Constitution - a painful experience that shaped the Eurocrats' method of keeping the decision-making process far away from the electorate.

However, a broad European debate on the strategy towards Ukraine, including sanctions against Russia, remains paramount as the political class has never bothered to explain why they are so desperate to associate the EU with a bankrupt state, notorious for endemic corruption and volcanic political life. In case the European parliament stays mute on the issue of Russian sanctions after the summer holidays, its reputation will suffer internally - the absence of a public debate will not pass unnoticed by the electorate, bringing about the decline of the institution in the public's eyes. Critical Europeans, who have already labelled MEPs as being part of a 'travelling circus' for squandering pubic money between two seats in Brussels and Strasbourg, will certainly not accept their indifference to the holes that sanctions against Russia will burn in people's pockets.

tarde venientibus ossa - To those who come late, the bones.