Europe must learn the "language of power".

Josep Borrell has been talking about it since he became EU foreign policy chief.

Ursula von der Leyen also made the formula her own.

It forms the basis of the “Strategic Compass”, which is intended to realign EU defense policy over the next few years.

But it is one thing to talk and write about it.

The other is to do it too.

In its reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU has now crossed this threshold.

She uses all her power to thwart Vladimir Putin's plans.

She shows a unity and determination that he could not count on.

This is indeed a "historic moment," as Borrell puts it.

Weapons are delivered for the first time

Two things happened over the weekend that were unimaginable a week earlier.

On the one hand, for the first time in its history, the EU is delivering arms to a country, and that too in the middle of a war zone.

It spends half a billion euros on it.

That's at least half of what President Biden has released in military aid since the crisis began.

The bilateral aid of the member states comes on top of that.

On the other hand, the EU has resorted to the toughest weapons in its arsenal, and they are of an economic nature. Now really big Russian banks are being cut off from international payments.

More significantly, half of Russia's central bank reserves have been frozen, worth more than 300 billion euros in foreign exchange.

This doesn't take effect in a few weeks or months, but immediately.

It limits the Russian government's ability to react to the ruble's fall in price and cuts Putin's war chest in half.

A moment like 9/11 in America

If the Kremlin ruler wants to further escalate the war and shell Kyiv with artillery, he needs to know: this money could one day also be used to pay for war damage.

Europe is experiencing a moment comparable to the impact of 9/11 in America.

A war is raging on the continent, the likes of which one could not imagine, did not want to imagine.

Although the EU itself is not affected, Putin's aggression is seen as an attack on the entire post-war order.

If he is not stopped now, this order could collapse completely.

This is an existential shock that could not be greater.

It is also the reason why an EU perspective for Ukraine is now being seriously considered.

Kyiv is applying for accession, and the will to quickly give the country candidate status is growing in the EU.

European integration is driven by crises.

In this crisis, the EU is discovering the part of its power that does not lie in free trade, but in trade restrictions.

She is learning to defend her interests robustly, just as America has always done.

And she's learning to hold her own in a world where autocrats override rules.

Whether this awakening will come in time to save Ukraine is uncertain.

But it shows those in power in Moscow and Beijing that they must not underestimate the self-preservation instinct of liberal democracies.