Sovereignty is essential for the integrity and sense of purpose of modern nation states -- in Europe and around the world. How individual European states pursue their interests within the European Union, which I see essentially as a confederation, is really up to them. There are trade-offs, bargains, negotiating that needs to go on between individual states and the Union that provides them with concrete benefits.
But I do not see the EU evolving into a federation or a "United States of Europe."
There are too many historical, cultural, and national interests at work in the individual nation states to subsume those interests to Brussels.
The Ukrainian conflict turned to a protracted and bitter war. This puts the European countries in a very hard economic, security, energy, and many other situations. But instead of European powers, it is now Turkey who tries to mediate between the parties. How do you see the situation of Europe from this perspective?
I should say, I am glad for any country, Turkey or otherwise, to try to find a way to bring this catastrophic war to an end. It effects all of us, Africans, Asians, Americans, not just Europeans, and of course Ukrainians most of all. I applaud President Macron's efforts to talk to President Putin, though they seem to have little or no effect. Europe's support of Ukraine is quite remarkable if one thinks about the potential for diverse ways to think about Moscow's actions in the different nations of the continent. Clearly Estonia -- at one extreme -- is deeply worried about potential warfare on its own territory, while Spain, on the other end of the continent, will have different issues. Hungary and Poland with similar domestic political problems with the EU, have had almost opposite reactions to Brussels's actions to deter Russian aggression.