Contesting EU Policy towards Ukraine and Russia in the European Parliament (2014-2015)

Since tragic events in Kyiv in February 2014, the European Parliament (EP) has been very active and concerned with the situation in Ukraine and Russian-Ukrainian conflict, trying to influence the position of the Council and individual Member States. Existing literature usually points to the normative radicalism of the EP, as reflected in its value-oriented resolutions and recommendations addressed to the Council and Commission (Braghiroli 2015). However, in reality, formulation of Parliament’s positions is heavily constrained by tensions and disagreements within the Parliament itself. Resolutions on relations with Russia and Ukraine, as well as on Russian-Ukrainian conflict adopted in the years 2014-2015 (end of 7th and beginning of 8th term) provide a case in point and reveal strong divisions between political groups, especially between mainstream and eurosceptic factions. To illustrate this observation, qualitative research is conducted by means of detailed analysis of all parliamentary resolutions adopted in the years 2014-2015 regarding Ukraine and Russia. The texts of adopted resolutions are compared with draft resolutions tabled by all political groups. The aim is to: 1) establish the main lines of eurosceptic contestation and reproduce core arguments used by eurosceptic factions to contest EU policy towards Ukraine and Russia; 2) determine the extent of impact of eurosceptic factions on the final resolutions (is there any change/ growth of influence after May 2014 elections?).