Nice writeup and i agree that for most of the time the EU was peaceful alliance focussed on achieving closer economic integration among their members. But these days, i wonder how come, that the EU in tight cooperation with NATO and the US come to support a nation, that is in no way a contracted member of any of these organisations. The EUs' lack in living up to their democratic promises surfaces in a obvious way. Since no citizen was asked if he agrees to spending a fortune on funding and military prepping of a non-member state for a conventional war. The decision to do so, was taken way back in-between 2007-2014 when it must have been clear to every involved diplomat, that Putins position on the Ukraine had already been made very clear within his speech at the NATO-summit in 2007. So one might get the impression that some new form of 'Great Game' has just begun. And NATO - on the brink of not-beeing-needed any longer in a such peaceful Europe, now can live-up again, protecting us from russian tanks. The EU has obviously funds to support military plannings and actions outside its borders - and happily decided to distribute payments it received from its legal members among non-members. No EU-citizen has been asked if he agrees to such adventures - a bet that is how i'd like to call it.
The EU-parliament - a misnomer, since this gremium has no legal power to introduce legislation, which is regarded the major characteristic of any credible parliament.
So the argument of economic-cooperation guarantees peace does not hold any longer - if its true, that the EU wants to expand its territory (welcoming a new member state) by using force.
The only thing to prevent the EU from overstepping their legal and geographic bounds would be citizen pools - and those EU-wide polls have sadly failed, which is why the EU decided not to do any further polls ;) Sure we'll have a election this year, but make no mistake about what the outcome might be. Chances for peace on the new eastern frontier are slim, since this conflict has become a challenge to demonstrate military and economic-power.
Last week a group of high ranked german military officials were caught in working out a strategy to perform a covert-action on foreign grounds. I wonder what happened to the paragraph in our foundation, that states clearly, that supporting - even planing of actions that lead to war is a major crime.
This is what german law §26 has to say ::
"Handlungen, die geeignet sind und in der Absicht vorgenommen werden, das friedliche Zusammenleben der Völker zu stören, insbesondere die Führung eines Angriffskrieges vorzubereiten, sind verfassungswidrig. Sie sind unter Strafe zu stellen."
and in criminal law §80 states ::
"Wer einen Angriffskrieg (Artikel 26 Abs. 1 des Grundgesetzes), an dem die Bundesrepublik Deutschland beteiligt sein soll, vorbereitet und dadurch die Gefahr eines Krieges für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland herbeiführt, wird mit lebenslanger Freiheitsstrafe oder mit Freiheitsstrafe nicht unter zehn Jahren bestraft."