European Values' Significance During The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine: Analysing The Discourse Of Romanian, Bulgarian And Hungarian MEPs

The characteristics of European values put them at the core of the European integration process, meaning that member states should accept and respect them. However, the polycrises era has brought the role of European values into question, as more often the member states define the content of these values according to their interests, or, worse, express disdain for them. After various crises that disrupted the EU's function, geopolitical crises present new challenges for the Union. The most significant crisis since the pandemic is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The crisis questions the EU's existence and geopolitical role in a world where transformations have accelerated. Moreover, the Russian invasion pushes the EU to redefine its relations with Russia. Therefore, I question: - How are the European values presented in the discourse of the examined MEPs? Given the significance of examining when and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine appears in the MEP's work, I focus on the European Parliament's parliamentary debates, covering the last parliamentary session (2019-2024). As I acknowledge how challenging it is to research all member states, I reduced my sample to Hungarian, Romanian, and Bulgarian MEPs. After applying thematic analysis, my results will be coded, categorised, analysed, and visualised with MAXQDA.