Effects of the War in Ukraine on the Development of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy

The outbreak of war in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 shocked the European Union (EU), shattering any hope for perpetual peace and forcing a re-evaluation of international relations. Russia’s brutal aggression exposed both the EU’s decisive steps towards integrating the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and its long-standing constitutional and institutional weaknesses in this area. The EU is not lacking guidance to address them. The Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE), along with the reports by Letta and Draghi, outline a detailed roadmap to drive CFSP integration into a sovereign federal EU competence. While the roadmap is set, the key question remains: will the EU be capable and politically willing to follow through and implement it? This article critically examines the impact of the war in Ukraine on CFSP integration and evaluates the main proposals for its reform. It argues that only a profound revision of the EU treaties can enable the EU to maintain geopolitical relevance in an increasingly hostile environment where reliance on the US security umbrella has become untenable following Donald Trump’s re-election.