Brussels, 19/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Visiting Moscow on Tuesday 18 November, Germany's Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “not optimistic” about a way out of the crisis in Ukraine. “There is no basis for optimism in the current situation”, he said during a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
Steinmeier and Lavrov both insisted on the importance of the Minsk agreements. A “unique” diplomatic tool, according to Lavrov, and a “major” one for Steinmeier. “Even if there are reasons to say that the most important obligations have not been fulfilled, abandoning this document would nevertheless be a great loss”, said Steinmeier. “We now have to make an effort, even it it's an immense effort, to give new impetus” to the negotiations to find a settlement to the Ukrainian conflict, he added.
“The Minsk agreements are not perfect but it is the only thing that has been supported by all the key actors”, the European Union, the US, the Ukrainian government and separatists, and Russia, said Lavrov. In his view, “the most important task at the moment is continuing a direct and stable dialogue” between the Ukrainian government and the separatists.
Pat Cox says EU needs new strategy. During a conference organised by Les Midis du Cife on Wednesday 19 November, the former co-leader of the observation mission in Ukraine, Pat Cox from Ireland, called on the EU to have a new strategy towards Ukraine. In his view, while a call to arms would be “a disaster for Ukraine”, action must be taken “to find a response”. He stated that the EU was not founded on the force of weapons, but on the force of law and reason.
Cox said that the sanctions should not be lifted, as certain member sates might suggest. “The sanctions are a sign of disapproval”, he said and lifting them would be “a disaster”. Cox also wanted a broader, long-term, strategy. He called on the Western countries for macroeconomic aid to Ukraine. “If the West does not come with a more flexible macroeconomic aid package, there is a deep risk of Ukraine being confronted with a default situation”, he said. In Cox's view, the financial crisis in Ukraine is “strongly under-estimated”.
Cox wanted the EU to remain strict towards Russia and not to go back on its sanctions or look elsewhere and say that at the end of the day Donbass is a frozen conflict. The EU must also use strategic language, he said.
Cox believed that it “would not help” to offer Ukraine an outlook for accession to the EU or NATO at the moment. Stating that if “the offer was on the table tomorrow” Ukraine would not be a member of the EU for another decade, he said he believed that the offer would complicate the geopolitical situation and that it was unknown how Russia would react. (CG)