Black clouds are gathering over the skies of Europe. Metaphorical clouds, of course. Clouds that appear as a bad omen for the future and destiny of the old continent. Never before has Brussels found itself in difficulty like in this period. And never so much in an identity crisis. Caught between a rock and a hard place, between the world that has been and what will be. Between the declining West and the East which is forcefully advancing on the world geopolitical scene. It seems to be the coveted prey of this titanic clash. So coveted as to be at the center of every geoeconomic, geopolitical and geostrategic consideration of the two contenders. This is due to its economic weight and its geographical relevance which gives it a fundamental geostrategic importance for anyone who wants to dominate the Eurasian continent.

THE CRISIS OF EUROPE: DIVERGENCE OF INTERESTS BETWEEN THE TWO SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC.

The crisis in Europe today appears evident above all in one aspect. It is aligned with the USA and Great Britain in the ongoing war against Russia but its interests do not fully converge with those of Washington and London. On some dossiers they are even divergent. This has placed the old continent in a paradoxical situation. In fact, Europe is supporting Anglo-Saxon desires  without this leading to real benefits for its economy or its strictly geopolitical interests. The destruction of the northstream gas pipelines, for example, eliminated any possibility of low-cost gas supplies from Russia in which Germany had invested with conviction in the recent past. These supplies will be largely replaced with gas coming from the United States of America at a price more than double that of Russian gas. It is clear that this cannot be in the interests of Europe (and Germany in particular). since it significantly increases the cost of the energy bill and because it makes European products (with higher production costs as a result of the increase in raw materials) less competitive on the world market. Even the more or less total closure of Brussels’ economic relations with Moscow does not benefit the development and prosperity of Europe since the costs of Russian raw materials (Europe did not only import gas from Russia but a myriad of raw materials including oil and coal) were very favorable for the old continent and from now on they will no longer be. While they will become available, in an almost unlimited measure, to rival commercial powers (China and India first and foremost). All this is therefore creating a competitive disadvantage for European industry which raises strong questions about the geopolitical path undertaken by Brussels following Washington and London. The future does not appear rosy for the European industrial complex which could lose the challenge of competitiveness on the main world markets. Will Europe find alternative supply sources to those existing today? Good question. This seems to be Brussels’ greatest concern today, and rightly so. Especially since the supply of raw materials from the countries of the former colonial empires (French and English first and foremost) could be at risk in the near future. Let’s try to understand why.

THE CRISIS OF EUROPE IN AFRICA: THE RUSSIAN AND CHINESE OFFENSIVE IN FORMER FRENCH COLONIAL AFRICA

The crisis in Europe also appears very serious on the African continent and this is rather worrying since it is precisely on the black continent that Europe still boasts strong neocolonial interests. It is from here that Europe draws a large part of the raw materials it needs. In particular, it is in former French colonial Africa that the old continent boasts very strong neocolonial interests. And it is precisely here that Russia, by fanning the deep anti-French sentiment of these countries, has promoted regime changes that are very dangerous for Brussels. This happened in Mali, the Central African Republic and Burkina Faso. But there is information that Moscow is working to promote others in neighboring countries. The tentacles of the Russian octopus are stretching fearfully across the African continent and this represents an existential threat for the old continent which could be deprived of what has, de facto, been its “exclusive economic zone” for centuries .With all the economic resources that this macro-region abounds in. This would be disastrous for the policy of grandeur that Paris has pursued for centuries and would place a serious threat on France’s role as a great power in the world. In light of these geopolitical developments on the black continent, it is easy to hypothesize that we will soon see real conflicts develop which will further aggravate the economic and social scenario of this tormented part of the world. Such a scenario will be very likely if the war in Ukraine takes a bad turn for the West and for NATO. In fact, if Moscow manages to prevail and reappropriates Kiev’s economic resources, a war for resources could be an obligatory step for Europe. The desperate need for low-cost raw materials for the European processing industry could lead Brussels (along with Washington and London) to make painful choices in foreign policy. But will they have the strength to re-establish their influence on the dark continent? Hard to say. From the map attached to this article (which has as its object the colonial partition of Africa by the European powers in the first half of the 20th century) it can be seen how the geopolitical situation of the black continent has radically changed over the last few decades . Today the European presence on the black continent has been profoundly reduced. Its entire central-southern part is under Chinese economic influence while the northern and central-eastern part has seen a very strong advance of Russian influence in recent years. And Moscow, not satisfied with this, now seems to be targeting West Africa (corresponding mostly to French colonial Africa) with the aim of depriving Europe of its most important “exclusive economic zone” and raw materials. low cost that it desperately needs. 

THE CRISI OF EUROPE: THE PROGRESSIVE LOSS OF POWER OF THE OLD CONTINENT

Europe’s crisis therefore seems to be connected to the loss of power that the old continent is suffering, slowly but surely, year after year. The challenge of Sino-Russian economic expansionism seems no less serious than Brussels’ dependence on the foreign policies of Washington and London which force it to make painful choices in foreign policy. Painful, because they do not adhere to one’s own interests. Painful, because they raise serious questions about the future of the economy and the production system of the old continent. Our hope is that Brussels will begin to pay attention to these critical issues. Otherwise the old continent may have doomed its future.

THE CRISIS OF EUROPE: CONCLUSIONS.

The crisis in Europe is more acute today than ever. On the one hand, it is caused by the rise of China and the return of Russian power to the international geopolitical chessboard which threaten European economic interests in various areas of the world where Europe still exercises neocolonial prerogatives today (especially in French colonial Africa). . On the other hand, it seems to be determined by Brussels’ inability, even today, to free itself from the directives of Washington and London in foreign policy. This was seen very clearly in the ongoing confrontation with the Russian federation for the control of Ukraine. Let’s not say that in this comparison Europe has everything to lose (in the event of Ukraine’s victory in the ongoing war, Europe would secure control, together with Washington, of the agricultural and mineral resources of the Slavic country with all the beneficial consequences for the European economy which we have already examined in other articles) but which still risks big. There is a big risk because regardless of how the conflict ends, it has lost its main supplier of low-cost raw materials (which will now sell its enormous resources to competing countries, providing them with a competitive advantage in the commercial field which is very problematic for the economy of the old continent). Furthermore, there is a big risk because this former privileged supplier of raw materials now threatens its own “exclusive economic zone” in Africa in an even more aggressive way and if it succeeds in this aim, Europe will be deprived of the precious resources of this macro-region . Finally, there is a big risk because it is unlikely, given the way things have turned out in Eastern Europe, that the Western coalition will be able to win militarily in Ukraine (also in consideration of historical and geostrategic factors analyzed in other articles on this blog). We don’t really know what calculations the Brussels bureaucrats have made. Maybe he missed something. Or, perhaps, we missed it. For the good of our venerable continent, let’s hope for the latter.