Riga, 06/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 6 March, the European foreign affairs ministers and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini underlined that the priority was implementing the Minsk agreement. They recognised the progress on the ground. “It's not perfect. There are still a few violations, but the trend is positive”, Mogherini said at an interparliamentary conference in Riga.
The ministers also stated that the sanctions should remain in place for the time being. “The sanctions are still in place. They will not be lifted until there is something very positive on the ground”, Mogherini stated, adding that the EU was “ready to respond if things were not working”. “As regards the sanctions, we remain united”, she said.
Nevertheless, it seems that the countries are not totally united. “Some countries support keeping the sanctions, others want them to be strengthened (…) and other want them reduced”, said Spain's foreign minister, José Garcia-Margallo, stating that in Spain's view the Minsk agreements were in the process of being implemented and that this was not the time to accelerate the process of sanctions. France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said he believed that it would be paradoxical to strengthen the sanctions now - when the Minsk agreements are being applied. “It's difficult to state there's some improvement and at the same time strengthen the sanctions”, he said, adding that there was a “fragile improvement”.
Belgium's foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said that if necessary, the EU could take out more sanctions but for the moment it was necessary “to reap [results] on the basis of the Minsk agreements”. “For the time being, we are in a phase of the sanctions being applied. I don't see any reason to change our attitude at the moment but we expect to see developments in the coming weeks and months. We will speak again by July.” The economic sanctions will be in force until the end of July. Fabius also wanted “to wait for the time that has been planned” to take a decision.
Their Lithuanian counterpart, Linas Linkevicius, said he supported the sanctions being extended. “Unity is a nice word but unity in doing nothing is not for me. We must be united in doing something”, Linkevicius stated. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)