The geopolitical reboot of Europe: Ukraine’s integration into the EU will create a new superpower

The G7 summit in Evian, France, demonstrated Europe’s ability to speak with a united front and effectively influence Washington’s foreign policy. Thanks to the consolidated position of European leaders, United States President Donald Trump was forced to soften his hard line on Ukraine and listen to a common European voice.

For a united Europe, this is also important because recent visits to Xi Jinping in Beijing by US President Donald Trump and Russian dictator Putin have demonstrated that China has felt itself the center of world power. After all, Beijing is now convinced that it is no longer the world’s second superpower, but shares first and second place with America.

With this balance of power, Beijing is putting not only a degrading Russia, but also a united Europe, on a par with the Russian Federation in its system of political priorities.

The current tectonic geopolitical shift shows that Xi Jinping and his entourage critically underestimate the European Union and the European continent itself. Although this geopolitical equation is solved unambiguously: the European Union and Ukraine in its composition are a powerful superpower. And without Ukraine, the European Union is doomed to remain in the shadow of the United States and China.

It is time for the European Union to take this issue seriously: Ukraine is a member of the EU and the European counterpart of NATO – an association capable of economically and politically confronting China, the Russian Federation, or the United States. If Ukraine continues to remain outside a united Europe, this will not only lead to a critical weakening of the role of the European Union in world geopolitics, but will also cause the inevitable transformation of the continent itself into a zone of permanent instability.

It is obvious that in the modern world, the geopolitical configuration is undergoing significant changes. The growth of China’s influence, the systemic degradation of the Russian Federation, and the isolationist transformation of the United States are shaping a new system of global polarity.

But China, while demonstrating ambitions to establish its status as a center of world power, simultaneously underestimates the potential of the European Union. This creates a paradoxical situation where a united Europe possesses all the resources necessary to form a superpower potential, but a lack of political will and strategic disagreements are currently holding back this process.

And this is happening at a time when the economic power of the European Union puts it in the category of global players. The European continent concentrates the world’s largest consumer goods market, high-tech industry, innovative potential and financial resources, which together create a unique economic capital.

At the same time, Europe’s economic power is dispersed among individual national economies, which often have different priorities and internal political conflicts. This disintegration of strategic interests prevents the formation of a coherent foreign policy that could be the hallmark of a true superpower.

In addition, the political structure of the European Union as a supranational organization creates additional constraints. Unlike China or the United States, where the central government is able to concentrate resources and make decisions quickly and without significant compromise, the EU is forced to work through a complex consensus mechanism, taking into account the positions of 27 member states with different historical, cultural and economic priorities. This mechanism, although effective in ensuring stability and cooperation, at the same time significantly slows down the processes of mobilizing forces in response to global challenges.

The military potential and security of the European Union also require constant attention. Despite the presence of powerful national armies in the European Union countries, their integration into a single defense system, both at the NATO level and within the EU’s own structures, is still incomplete.

In this situation, Ukraine’s direct participation can become a strategic factor in strengthening Europe’s defense potential. After all, Ukraine’s large territory, population, and military-technical potential could significantly strengthen Europe’s collective security. Ukraine’s absence from the European Union’s political and defense space leaves the continent vulnerable to external influences and creates a large security vacuum.

Which not only undermines the stability of Eastern Europe, but also threatens the internal integrity of the entire European Union. Without Ukraine’s integration, the European security architecture remains incomplete and vulnerable.

Ideological and political coherence is equally important for Europe. In the context of global competition for values ​​and development models, China demonstrates the ability to shape its own aggressive strategy, while simultaneously relegating Europe to the periphery of the global political process.

The European Union, while promoting the universal values ​​of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, often exhibits institutional inertia in their practical implementation on the global stage. This creates an imbalance between economic potential and real political weight, which prevents Europe from attempting to compete with the United States or China on equal terms.

The issue of Ukraine’s integration plays a special role in this process. Ukraine’s inclusion in the European Union means not only economic and demographic strengthening, but also a strategic expansion of the EU’s influence in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region.

Ukraine is becoming a kind of «bridge» between Europe and the post-Soviet space, capable of stabilizing the region and strengthening the European Union’s position in global politics. Without Ukraine, the European Union risks remaining a secondary power, limited by internal contradictions and geopolitical complexes.

In general, despite the availability of resource, economic, and demographic potential, Europe consciously refrains from declaring its intention to become a superpower. This is due both to the structural limitations of its internal organization and to the traditional European desire for consensus and avoidance of confrontation.

However, in the context of modern global transformations, when China is increasingly asserting its claim to world leadership and Russia is demonstrating aggressive expansion, Europe should rethink its strategic positioning.

Only a united Europe, together with Ukraine, can become a full-fledged superpower, capable of economically, politically, and militarily confronting modern centers of power and forming its own global strategy.

The lack of such an approach condemns the European continent to the role of a peripheral player in global geopolitics. Because Ukraine outside integration with the European Union means not only the loss of its potential, but also a systemic danger to the stability of the entire European space.

Currently, the issue of transforming the European Union into a superpower is not just a political, economic, or military task. It is a deep strategic reform that involves internal political consolidation, rapid integration of Ukraine, strengthening defense capabilities, and creating the EU’s ability to act as a single geopolitical power.

The transformation of the European Union into a full-fledged superpower is not simply a linear expansion of its existing institutions, but a fundamental shift that requires radical changes in favor of a transition from a model of coordinated intergovernmental cooperation to supranational governance with a single political, economic, and security center.

It is clear that this process requires abandoning the principle of unanimity (veto right) in key decisions of the EU Council in favor of qualified majority. It also requires the creation of a full-fledged European Armed Forces instead of separate national contingents, the formation of a single diplomatic service with much broader powers, the integration of tax systems, the completion of the full development of the banking union and the granting of the European Commission the powers of a full-fledged government accountable to the European Parliament.

A profound institutional transformation of the countries of the European continent will ensure the stability of the union in view of global world challenges. Such steps can transform the European project into a real superpower, capable of defending its interests, values, and geopolitical subjectivity on the international arena on a par with other world players.

The true geopolitical subjectivity of the European Union in the modern multipolar architecture of the world cannot rely solely on regulatory or economic power. It inevitably requires a transition to a single defense and political command capable of instantaneous strategic projection of force.

In view of this, the accelerated integration of Ukraine is not a humanitarian or purely expansionist project, but a critical geostrategic necessity that radically shifts the security center of gravity of the continent, forges a new European identity, and provides the EU with the necessary military tools and strategic force to deter systemic revisionist threats from totalitarian states.

It is certain that the historical viability of the renewed European Union as a global pole of power depends on its ability to overcome internal decision-making paralysis, replacing consensual diplomacy with tough geopolitical pragmatism. Transforming the colossal normative capital of the European Union into a real, consolidated and active geopolitical subjectivity.

In the face of sharply intensifying global competition and the destabilization of the former security architecture, the traditional role of the European Union as an exclusively «soft power» and regulatory giant is becoming insufficient to protect its own interests.

The EU’s transition from normative influence to decisive geopolitical positioning is not just a strategic choice, but an urgent need for the survival and preservation of European sovereignty.

Only with internal consolidation and the ability to act as a single political force on the world stage will Europe be able to effectively counter hybrid threats, guarantee the security of its citizens, and secure a significant place in the process of forming a new multipolar world order of the 21st century.