"Our response to the invasion was by the hour at first, now not to the same degree, but it is absolutely Europe's top priority and we will stay supportive of Ukraine until the war is won and Ukraine has been rebuilt, and become a member of the European Union," Vestager continued. "I think that is the crucial commitment that has been made, and that will be a better union when that is brought about - a more dynamic union and a more united union."
Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign and security chief, argued the EU had grown up, "making more progress in a week toward the objective of being a global security player than it had in the previous decade". Measures that were unthinkable just a few days earlier, such as barring leading Russian banks from the Swift international financial messaging system and freezing the Russian central bank's assets, were imposed at an unprecedented pace.
The price of failure was also dauntingly high. "Everything is at stake in this war: each and every one of the core principles of European security have come under attack," said Jonatan Vseviov, the secretary general in Estonia's directorate of the ministry of foreign affairs. "They will either be strengthened as a result of this war, or they will be fundamentally weakened. The notions of territorial integrity, sovereignty, the unacceptability of aggression, the illegality of war crimes are being tested right now."
In an effort not to fail, the EU activated its temporary protection directive for the first time in history, giving more than 5.3 million Ukrainians the right to residence. With the European Commission in the driving seat, it has for the first time imposed 10 rounds of economic sanctions against a country, all agreed - eventually - unanimously. National sanctions enforcement has now even become an EU competence.
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