Unity and Credibility

The Economist points out that the emergency EU Summit held over Russia today is the first of its kind held since 2003 when the organization met to debate the Iraq war, which should at least count for something:

But there are other bits of the EU which are home to many Russian citizens, such as Latvia, or which have historical memories of being invaded by Russian armies seeking to defend Russian minorities. That awkward fact was noted, publicly, by Radek Sikorski, the foreign minister of Poland. He said that Europe’s reaction to the Georgia crisis was an important test for millions of EU citizens in the ex-Communist centre and east of the continent, who were “unnerved” by Russia’s recent actions. A failure to reach a “united, credible” response would “damage” the union’s claims that it should be taken seriously in foreign policy or defence. Alas, being both united and credible is a tall order for the EU, when it comes to ties with Russia. Expect the search for unity to trump credibility, as so often before.