Ukrainian crisis
Little solidarity and much lip service at EU summit
Commenting on today's extraordinary EU summit on Ukraine, Greens/EFA co-president Rebecca Harms said:
"This summit has fallen short of what is needed, with lots of lip service but little meaningful solidarity. Despite the nearing Russian fait accompli in Crimea, EU member states are not willing to abandon their policy of appeasement. Soft symbolic actions, like cancelling the G8 summit or halting negotiations on visa facilitation or a new agreement with Russia, will not impress Putin.
"Our call for an arms export ban to Russia was apparently not even discussed. This is unacceptable, all the more so in the German context where even banned armaments are being exported to areas of tension."
Green foreign affairs spokesperson Werner Schulz added:
"The agreed aid underlines how half-hearted the EU is. Only €3 billion of the €11 billion is from the EU budget, the rest comes from European banks. Member states themselves obviously don't want to contribute any support. To sign the political part of the Association Agreement without the important and inclusive trade chapters undermines the whole agreement.
"At the very least, the EU needs to immediately grant freedom of travel for Ukrainian citizens, so it is clear that a Ukrainian passport is valuable at a time when Russian passports are being promoted from Moscow. The EU must also step up the anti-trust case against Gazprom that misuses its monopoly against EU member states and Ukraine, as this actually influences Putin."
