EAEU and the European Union

This chapter explores the reasons for the mutual suspicion that has characterized relations between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union (EU) from the outset. Antagonisms have always existed, despite considerable legal and institutional similarities between both organizations. They are primarily the result of the broader political context of initially competition and eventually a confrontation between the EU and Russia. To understand how relations derailed, the chapter identifies both structural factors (a paradigm of ‘competing regionalisms’ and Putin’s ambition to create a new pole in global relations) and process dynamics (an escalatory logic and intensified geopoliticization of region-building). Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 took this problem to a new level. It further increased the use of the EAEU as a geopolitical instrument in a context of dramatic escalation.