ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explain the impact of axiological factors on EU–Ukraine relations and its implications for the EU’s strategic capacity as an international actor. The major research focus of the study is on the values-driven approach as a consolidating element of the EU institutional cooperation on the reform of its foreign policy priorities. Empirically, the chapter is based on two case studies of axiological perspectives in the political discourse of EU leaders, that is, presidents of the European Council, European Commission, and European Parliament, and in the adopted documents on the broad matter of EU–Ukraine relations and its implications for the EU’s actorness on the international scene. Such research focus argues for the methodological approach that employs qualitative discourse analysis in couple with content analysis as the main method to study the promotion of political strategies delivered by EU officials and their reflection in adopted documentation aimed at facilitating the continuous intergovernmental support for Ukraine’s EU membership in the years 2022–2024. By doing so, the research evaluates the efficiency of the EU inter-institutional capacity to employ political discourse centred on EU values as a persuasion tool by promoting Ukraine’s accession as a pragmatic necessity dictated by the new geopolitical context. Altogether, the four categories of narratives defined by this study may serve as an argument for a growing sustainability of agreement among EU institutional leaders on the necessity to considerably reform EU actorness on the international scene. As the chapter reveals, the values-driven nature of EU–Ukraine relations in times of ongoing Russian aggression has triggered the unprecedented changes in EU foreign policy-making that, in turn, established a new framework of EU strategic development as an actor of international relations.
