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This analysis offers a doctrinal overview of the main legal instruments employed by the EU in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and considers whether the EU’s legal response is revolutionary in comparison to its response to previous crises. To this aim, the article considers the ways in which the EU has intervened in three areas: the financing of the transfer of weapons to Ukraine, the humanitarian assistance for people fleeing Ukraine, and the sanctions against Russia and Belarus. The analysis argues that the EU’s response shows political cohesion, but it is not legally revolutionary, neither in the instruments adopted, nor in the actors adopting them. The EU constitutional structure withstood the impact. It enabled the Member States to adopt measures foreseen by EU law to face the emergency, without the need for explicit or implicit constitutional amendments. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the response was led by Member States engaging with the decision-making processes within the EU as opposed to decision-making through structures outside the Treaties.
