Bloomberg Editorial: United by Putin, the EU should seize the moment

The 2015 and 2022 refugee crises in Europe have at least one thing in common. Russian President Vladimir Putin played a major role in causing the first—by bombing Syria—and bears sole responsibility for the current crisis, with his unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

But beyond that, the two humanitarian calamities are very different. Therein lies an opportunity for the European Union and the bloc should seize it.

In 2015, the EU split roughly along the old Iron Curtain. To the west, member states led by Germany tried to find an orderly but humane way to deal with asylum seekers, relieve countries like Greece on the bloc’s outer periphery, and reform and strengthen Europe’s refugee system as a whole.

To the east, member states led by Hungary and Poland closed their doors to incoming refugees and then resisted attempts to reform Europe’s immigration regime. In effect, Budapest and Warsaw told Brussels that the arrival of tired, poor, overcrowded masses yearning for freedom was Berlin’s problem, or maybe Brussels, but certainly not theirs.

These two governments, both of the populist extreme right, used the specter of the Muslim hordes to launch a propaganda campaign against Brussels and strengthen their position at the national level.

In the process, they undermined the rule of law, press and academic freedoms, and the rights of LGBTQ people, among others. The EU initiated legal proceedings against both countries. The block seemed to be fraying, or even breaking.

The situation is totally different this time. In numbers, the current crisis is much greater. More than two million Ukrainians have already arrived in the EU after only two weeks of the war that Putin unleashed; that is, more refugees than those who arrived in all of 2015. And millions more are expected. Until now, they have generally been received with the same warmth and compassion.

About half of the refugees are children, the rest mostly women (Ukrainian men are required by law to stay in the country to fight). Most have gone to Poland, others have crossed to Slovakia, Hungary or Romania. Many are traveling to places like Germany.

The Poles, who have a culture similar to that of the Ukrainians, have welcomed them. The whole EU has done the same. With unusual speed, Brussels has written new rules. Ukrainians do not have to apply for asylum and will automatically get protection for three years.

They can move freely (literally, since most train operators don’t charge them) to any of the 27 member states, where they will obtain accommodation, education and work permits.

Rarely – if ever – has the EU shown such harmony, coordination and determination. It is as if they have finally realised, as if there has been a revelation from Lisbon to Warsaw: there is much more that unites Europeans than divides them.

That applies to threats — from ruthless bullies like Putin to pandemics, climate change and more — and also to values ​​ranging from human dignity to democracy. And it could extend to the creation of a military union, a European army, to intimidate – together with NATO – Vladimir Putin.

Here is the opportunity. The bloc’s divisions, between east and west, north and south, suddenly seem small enough in scale to overcome. The old nonconformity has at least temporarily dissipated, replaced by a spirit of solidarity and determination. Hopefully, Europeans will recognize this historic moment and seize it.