Where does Europe end?

From the editorial office. Where does Europe end? What main difficulties interfere with the establishment of relations between Russia and the EU? Do the Euroiconitive of President Medvedev have prospects? RSA decided to ask about this from the Polish political scientist Alexander Smolyar, the head of the Foundation Stefan Batoria (Warsaw).

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Russian magazine: Dear Mr. Smolyar, do you agree with the “What does Russia thinks at the conference?” The opinion that Europe and the EU is not the same thing? How do you evaluate the concept of Euro -security proposed by Dmitry Medvedev, which just proceeds from this statement?

Alexander Smolyar: Of course, this is true. Russia is also Europe. The thing is that Europe as a concept is a space without borders. Geographically, it ends in the Urals. But culturally, in truth, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand is also Europe, it is part of European culture. I agree with Gleb Pavlovsky, it was his position that Europe is not only a European union. And this is another good reason why the EU and Russia should determine the positions where their interests coincide, to build possible projects of cooperation. It was well said that maybe we are too small separately for this big world.

No one in the European Union says that Europe ends on the boundaries of the European Union. And everyone understands that this is, in a sense, a fundamental threat to the EU. We cannot say where the boundary of the possible expansion of the “Eurosfer”. There is no border of Europe, except for the formal geographical . Why are the Russians who live on the other side of the Urals - why should they feel like Europeans to a lesser extent than Muscovites? So this is no longer theoretical, this is the practical problem of the European Union - where is the boundaries of our possible expansion?

You will have to think about it. The most conflict situation, it seems to me, in the relationship between the European Union and Russia, is precisely the problem of the limits of the EU expansion. All the documents of the European Union since its occurrence, since the fifties, states that all European countries that European norms of democracy, legal norms, and economic norms of the market may belong to the European Union. We must understand: we are not talking about aggression against Russia, when countries that previously became part of the USSR are accepted in the EU. This is a process in which the will of peoples who seek united Europe is of great importance. But only the will is not enough. European norms should also be accepted in such countries. And this is quite difficult. It is for this reason that I think that Ukraine, Moldova or Georgia will not be able to claim membership in the EU for many years.

RZh: is it not, and this was also said at the conference, one of the key problems in the relations of Russia and the European Union that Russia is now building a national state in the post -Soviet period , and the problem of sovereignty is posed at the forefront? And in Europe, the countries that join the European Union, on the contrary, refuse part of sovereign rights.

A.S.: Absolutely. Ivan Krastev definitely noticed that the European Union is a postmodern in a sense. The peoples themselves move away from traditional sovereignty. In Russia, the opposite is true. Russia has never been a national state before . Hence the various interpretations of the concepts of “Russian” and “Russian”, which have not yet existed. It is difficult to move from imperial existence to a national. Therefore, such dramatic problems in Russia's relations with such an independent state of the former USSR as Ukraine. This is a territory close in spirit and blood, but it is an independent country today. For the idea of ​​independence, the majority of ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted in 1991. But you know, such problems are resolved over time when people agree to make an objective, independent circumstances . Most ethnic Hungarians live in other countries, and not in Hungary. Hungarians live in the former Yugoslavia, in Austria, in Slovakia, in Romania. This is a reality, although it is an internally to agree with such a question of the issue is a long process.

The logic of Russian state construction and the logic of creating the European Union, of course, are different. But you need to understand and accept that they are different. And then many problems will be solved between Russia and the EU.

RG: Legal universalism, which is offered by Dmitry Medvedev, in your opinion, is in demand now in the pan -European space? There is a position expressed by RSA in one of the interviews that conducting a conversation about uniform standards is primitive, that all countries always have double standards, and the most effective foreign policy is possible only with the existence of double standards. Can I agree with such a judgment?

A.S.: This is too cynical, I would say, let it be true. Even in everyday life, we treat different people differently, although we know that it is, in fact, immoral. We must fight against double standards, and legal universalism is the most important thing. The European Union is built on the principles of legal universalism. Therefore, I would not reject Medvedev’s concept as an idea on the move .

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