Brussels, 12/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the informal European Council on Thursday 12 February, European Council President Donald Tusk announced that the EU heads of state and government gave their “cautious backing” to the agreement obtained a few hours earlier between the Normandy format leaders (see other article).
“Everything on paper must be translated into deeds”, he said. “It's a small glimmer of hope - nothing more, nothing less”, stated Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel. “It's a fragile agreement. There's been a step forward, but there is still uncertainty. The European Council has given its backing to this agreement, but remains vigilant”, said France's President François Hollande. “We should wait (…) before we make a judgment”, said British Prime Minister David Cameron. The prime ministers of Poland and Belgium, Ewa Kopacz and Charles Michel, described the agreement as “very fragile”. After his meeting with the European leaders, Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko stated that he did not expect the process to be implemented easily.
Tusk said that the ceasefire should be respected and that a true de-escalation of the conflict was needed. “This is not only about the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The whole geopolitical order in Europe after 1989 is at stake”, Tusk stated.
“We agree with most parts of the conclusions resulting from the negotiations”, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
“This is not a new Minsk agreement. It's a package of measures for implementing the Minsk agreements. We have tried to specify the Minsk agreements. But we are dependent on the goodwill of the main actors”, said Merkel. In Hollande's view, “it would be good to have a telephone conference in Normandy format in the coming days. And if necessary, to have a physical meeting in the coming weeks.”
Commission to work on the agreement. Juncker said that the Commission would take responsibility for making the elements involved in the agreement happen. He thus stated that the Commission was going to relaunch the negotiations on the trilateral agreement on energy. “The negotiations will be resumed immediately”, he said. The Commission has also taken responsibility for studying the impact on Russia of the provisions of the EU-Ukraine free trade agreement. Asked about the possibility of changing the agreement, Juncker said that things were still the same but that account needed to be taken of the impact of the agreement on Russia. “And in the light of this assessment, we will see what we will do”, he said. “We will approach this difficult subject extremely cautiously: the intersection between what we do in Europe on trade and the Eurasian Community. This will be an in-depth study that we will do when the time is right”, Juncker added. According to a European source, if the agreement is put in place, the EU could bring increased support to the OSCE - be it financial or in terms of observers on the ground, or supporting the elections. “There are many things that can be done. It depends on implementing the agreement”, the source stated.
New sanctions should the agreement fail. Tusk stated that they had not discussed new sanctions or postponing the decision of the last European Council to add 19 people and 9 entities to the list of sanctions - a decision which is due to enter into force on 16 February. He warned that should the agreement not be implemented, the EU would not hesitate to take further measures. “We are at a key point in our history. We are showing unity and we will know how to be united to take out new sanctions if they are seen necessary”, Tusk added. Hollande also said that should the agreement not be respected, there would be increased sanctions.
Poroshenko believed that if the agreement was breached, this would be a reason for further European and American restrictive measures. Stating that immediately after the agreement was signed, separatists launched an offensive, Poroshenko said “this is why it's vital for us all to maintain pressure for keeping the promises on the ceasefire, the withdrawal of heavy weapons, the release of all the hostages, the withdrawal of troops and foreign mercenaries, and the closure of the borders”. Elsewhere, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that he had received Poroshenko's assurance that there would be no amnesty for those responsible for the crash of flight MH17, and that these people would not therefore be concerned by point 5 of the Minsk agreement ensuring the pardon and amnesty of people linked to the events that took place in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. (Camille-Cerise Gessant with LC, MD, EH, AN, IL, JK)