RIO DE JANEIRO, January 27. /TASS/. The European Union has belatedly recognized the need for peace talks on Ukraine but it won’t help regain its political clout, Claudio Pitillo, Brazilian political scientist and professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said.

"The tardy recognition of the fact that peace can only be achieved through talks <...> will not enhance Europe’s political role," he wrote in an op-ed for the Brasil 247 media outlet.

According to the expert, European politicians are changing their rhetoric after a long period of confrontation with Russia, which can have the opposite effect. "It can bring the Old World to a point of no return and a social crisis that will threaten the very survival of the union as we know it," Pitillo noted.

"Today, Europe still opposes peace negotiations," he went on to say. "The price Europe is paying for years-long disregard for Russia’s security concerns has greatly increased. The continent has already suffered major economic losses from an energy crisis and the deindustrialization process," the expert added.

Earlier, Kirill Dmitriev, Russian special presidential envoy for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries and director general of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), emphasized that the current EU elite aimed to complete the self-destruction of European civilization.