Brussels, 10/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - Member state ambassadors to the EU were continuing their discussions on Wednesday 10 September as we went to press on implementing the sanctions against Russia adopted two days previously (see EUROPE 11151).
At a German Marshall Fund conference in Brussels, Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, whose country currently holds the presidency of the Council of the EU, said that application of the sanctions had been suspended because of the debate that is going on within the EU, and also with the United States and Ukraine, on the most effective timing of the sanctions agreed on Monday so that there would be neither interference with nor contradictory signals sent against the work being carried out by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to secure the agreement signed in Minsk on 5 September. Unity has to be reached on the timing and there has to be joint consideration if necessary at the highest political level, she added.
Mogherini, who is to be the next EU high representative for foreign affairs, said that some countries held the view that European leaders should have another opportunity for formal or informal discussion. She stressed the importance of European unity, adding that all member states had to be comfortable with the implementation of the measures that had been adopted.
She said she had held talks that morning with her Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin who had informed her that, while fresh sanctions were needed, the cease-fire was holding and positive steps were expected in the coming hours and days.
Mogherini indicated that the European response to the Ukrainian crisis would depend on Russia. How well Moscow turns its words into action would give the Minsk agreement the chance to become a reality, she said. (CG)