Brussels, 20/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On their arrival at the European summit in Brussels on 20 March, EU heads of state called for stronger, targeted, sanctions on Russia, along with a longer list of people whose assets in the EU are frozen and who will not be granted visas. They condemned the annexation of Crimea by Russia, but are not expected to move to phase three (economic sanctions).
Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of Luxembourg, said that they were in phase two and had not yet exhausted all the options of phase two so he did not want to talk about phase three already until the phase two options had all been exhausted. The French president, Francois Hollande, said that sanctions had to be decided for certain individuals but, if economic sanctions were to be considered and decided on Thursday, then time would be needed for them to be prepared and, at Thursday's summit, they would be discussing sanctions against individuals. He said that other types of sanction needed to be considered if there were an escalation, because the EU had to be firm but open for dialogue. A close French government source said that they were not yet at a stage of escalation that would lead to anything other than sanctions against individuals. Other sanctions was a dimension that could be considered, but was not on the agenda.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said that they were at phase two for sanctions, basically a ban on travel and bank accounts, but she said it was very clear that a new escalation would lead to new sanctions. The chancellor stressed the importance of the OECD sending a mission to Ukraine rapidly and aid for the Ukrainian government. The president of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, said that targeted economic sanctions were needed against those responsible for the situation - targeted sanctions, rather than sanctions across the board at this stage. She said sanctions across the board would affect ordinary Russians and Europeans and would not be effective enough, and that an arms embargo needed to be discussed. She said that, if military threats continued, then an arms embargo needed to be immediately introduced.
Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo made it clear that he opposed economic sanctions. He said people needed to be wary and make a detailed analysis, rather than rushing into economic sanctions. He said he wanted a political, economic and military analysis because, when a situation is as serious as this, one has to consider future consequences. He called for people to remain calm, not get carried away and to consider the interests of Europeans. He said Europeans should help in direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia and important European leaders should travel to Moscow and Kiev. Similar comments were made by the Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, who said it was not necessary to move to the stage of economic sanctions and the focus instead should be on discussion and negotiations.
The British and Swedish prime ministers, David Cameron and Fredrik Reinfeldt respectively, said the EU had to be united in its message. Cameron said the EU had to respond in a clear, united voice, which meant sanctions against a longer list of people and specific action vis-à-vis events in Crimea. He said the EU should help build a strong, democratic Ukraine. Reinfeldt said the next stages should be prepared together because a united Europe is the last thing Putin wants - he wants a divided Europe.
Cancellation of EU-Russia Summit
The June EU-Russia summit in Sochi will be cancelled, said French president François Hollande, because a summit cannot take place when political relations have been suspended.
European institution presidents called upon to make decisions
At a press conference, the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, called for targeted sanctions and a genuine strategy for dealing with Russia. He said proper signals needed to be sent, and told the heads of state it was time to develop a coherent strategy towards Russia. Schulz said the European Union had to send out the message that the events in Crimea cannot be tolerated and must never re-occur anywhere else, but he wanted channels of communication with Russia to remain open. We cannot shut our eyes to this provocation of Europe on the EU's external borders, he said, adding that Europe cannot simply do nothing when people wanting closer ties with Europe are prevented from doing so by others. This is a huge and radically new challenge for the European Union, he said.
The president of the EP also pointed out that the Ukrainian people had never needed the EU's support as much as right now, both at the political and, above all, the financial level.
Earlier in the day, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said that the best response that the EU could make to the situation in the Ukraine was to do everything possible to ensure Ukraine remained a credible, stable, viable, democratic and prosperous country. At the same time, he said, the member states must examine to what extent they are prepared to move forward, while stating that the type of behaviour witnessed recently in Europe cannot be accepted and would lead to certain consequences.
US sanctions in response to Russian sanctions
In the United States, President Barack Obama has threatened to issue sanctions against key parts of the Russian economy and has announced sanctions against Bank Rossiya and 20 new politicians. In retaliation, Russia has decided to double its own black list of nine US leaders against which it has issued sanctions, including three advisers to Barack Obama, the heads of the Democrats and Republicans and former US presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. (CG and EL)