Ryszard Antoni Legutko, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Mr President, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dear me, what bellicose language not heard in this Chamber for decades. The EU institutions have been notoriously pro-Russian, and stronger words were usually suppressed by the big men in this Parliament and the Commission. The unpleasant fact is that there is not much that the EU can or will do about Russia. The EU has neither instruments, nor the will, nor a common foreign policy for that matter.

During the Ukrainian crisis the EU High Representative did a lot of travelling, but she might just as well have stayed at home and watched television. The job was done by the representatives of national governments. Of course, what they did was too late and too timid, and they were soon overtaken by events. Today it is clear that the belligerent rhetoric is no longer palatable to the powerful European governments and will soon change. Chancellor Merkel is not happy with this war of words and longs for the good old days of business as usual. Other European governments think pretty much the same.

The present outburst of moralistic rhetoric condemning Russia – not the first and not the last in recent history – is one of those episodes that will soon pass into political oblivion. What will most likely happen is a tacit agreement between the major western players and Russia, legitimising her imperialist interest in the Crimea and elsewhere, and it will not take long before this Chamber will be praising Russia for her self-restraint and a generally stabilising role.

The European countries will ultimately side with Russia, not against Russia; with the strong, not with the weak. This is what European politics has been like for centuries. Anyone who expects something entirely different is bound to be disappointed. The Book of Ecclesiastes had it just right: there is nothing new under the sun.