A critical assessment of EU-Russia relations: Conflict, competition, or consensus?

摘要

The purpose of this thesis is to examine EU-Russian relations from an analytical point of view. Due to the changing climate in the European Union and Russia, caused by such factors as the EU's expansion to twenty-seven member states and Russia's establishment of itself as the main European petrol and gas provider, the relationship between the two is by necessity now vigorous and essential. This ultimately translates into numerous clashes, and competitive situations, but also an effort from the two powers to find new effective ways to make the relationship work. This paper aims to discover which term - conflict, competition, or consensus - best describes the target relationship and sets the tone for the future. Different countries from the EU have established different approaches to deal with the Russian superpower. As a result the EU-Russian relationship appears to be a combination of all of the above.