The Crimean Platform was first presented by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in August 2020 when he addressed the nation’s parliament in his then annual message, saying that the creation of the Crimean Platform would return the issue of the Crimea peninsula’s occupation by Russia to the international agenda.
Holding the first forum on August 23, 2021, the Crimean declaration was signed before an international audience. Since then the Crimea Platform has been seeking to transform itself into a more formal organisation, complete with a statute, executive bodies and advisory functions connected with partner governments and organisations.
However despite the attempts of Ukraine and its allies to draw international attention to the problem of the Crimean peninsula through the use of the Crimean Platform, the key European states (Germany and France), according to reports, do not support this idea of the Crimean Platform as the momentum toward greater fiscal integration in Europe has stalled in the face of growing demands on Europe to invest resources to address common problems. But the European Union, (EU), lacks the fiscal capacity to address major issues from defence procurement to providing weapons to Ukraine, and from building new energy infrastructure and accelerating the green transition to securing supply chains.
This lack of support from European countries actually weakens the international influence of the Crimean platform initiative and its effectiveness. Given the disagreements among the participants in the Crimean platform on approaches and strategies to the problem of the peninsular, a united front in the struggle for the Crimea may not be easily achieved.
A similar situation has been observed in the EU when countries are discussing the introduction of new sanctions against Russia. Some express the fear of negative consequences that could rubbish their economies, Reuters News reported that the European union unity over sanctions on Russia has started to falter as jitters about the impact on Europe’s own stumbling economy weakens resolve to punish Moscow for its military operation in Ukraine. ‘’it is becoming increasingly difficult to impose sanctions that hit Russia hard enough, without excessive collateral damage to the EU,’’ a spokesperson for Belgium’s government affirmed.
European diplomats and officials told Reuters that the bloc was nearing its limits. “Now we are careful with sanctions, so that we don’t go so far that we would totally damage the European economy” said Edita Hrda, the ambassador to the European union of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency.
