Brussels, 03/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 2 May, nine MEPs once again called on High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to propose to the Council the adoption of a list for a visa ban for those on the Magnitsky list wanting to enter the EU.
The Magnitsky list names 32 Russian officials suspected of being responsible for the torture and death of lawyer Sergey Magnitsky in 2009, and for the subsequent judicial cover up.
The MEPs' call follows the visit of two former Russian officials - Pavel Karpov and Andrei Pavlov - to the European Parliament for an event on 27 April 2016 regarding the Magnitsky case. “The presence in the Parliament of these two individuals, targeted by international sanctions, shows clearly the need for concerted EU action, and that [Federica] Mogherini must finally bring the Magnitsky sanctions to the Council for adoption”, said the European Parliament's ALDE Group leader Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), Greens co-leader Rebecca Harms (Germany), chair of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany), chair of the Parliament's sub-committee on defence Anna Fotyga (ECR, Poland), and MEPs Tunne Kelam (EPP, Estonia), Jaromir Stetina (EPP, Czech Republic), Ana Gomes (S&D, Portugal), Petras Austrevicius (ALDE, Lithuania), and Eva Joly (Greens, France) in a joint letter.
The MEPs deplore the fact that Karpov and Pavlov received a visa to enter the EU and were able to take the floor at the European Parliament to speak “at an event which appears to be used as part of a broader campaign to discredit critics of the Russian leadership, both inside and outside the country, and to denigrate Sergey Magnitsky's personality and his tragic death in a Russian prison cell”.
The European Parliament made a request for a visa ban and assets freeze in the EU of the 32 Russian officials on the Magnitsky list by adopting a resolution on 2 April 2014 (see EUROPE 11053). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)