BRUSSELS, October 5. /TASS/. EU institutions may use the hysteria around the hostilities in Ukraine to launch an overhaul that would expand the powers of bureaucrats in the bloc to the detriment of the sovereignty of its member countries, Kirill Logvinov, Russia’s acting Permanent Representative to the EU, opined.
"The European Union is facing an existential crisis. Its original goals of raising the people’s socio-economic standards and increasing the competitiveness of the integration bloc have run counter to the ambitions by its incumbent leaders to turn the EU into a certain `geopolitical player’ with a substantial military and political weight," he told TASS. "But that would be impossible without embracing a radical EU reform agenda, strengthening the role of EU institutions and further reducing the role of EU capitals. Seemingly, it is the Ukrainian story that Brussels will use for an EU overhaul," the Russian diplomat added.
"A situation has so far evolved where EU institutions have a chance to overcome the opposition [on the part of some member countries] by fanning the military hysteria and supporting pro-Ukrainian sentiments, in the context of countering the so called Russian influence, too," Logvinov emphasized.