Brussels, 30/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 30 October, France's Minister for Finance Michel Sapin announced that in his view “the conditions” had “not been met for delivering the Mistral warships to Russia”. “The conditions are a return to normal in Ukraine and for Russia to play a positive role. Things are better but there are still concerns”, Sapin said on French radio station RTL. The previous day, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin had announced that the ceremony for the delivery of the first Mistral would take place on 14 November (see EUROPE 11187). The builder of the warship, the DCNS (Direction des constructions navales et services), however, denied any delivery date being “confirmed at this stage”, and added that it was awaiting “the export authorisation needed from the government to be able to fulfil the transfer” of the ship (our translation throughout). (CG)