On Thursday 16 March, MEPs called for consideration to be given to a possible negotiation mechanism to put an end to the occupation of Crimea.
The joint resolution from the EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE and Green Groups, which was adopted at the European Parliament's plenary session by 451 votes in favour, 73 against with 86 abstentions, thus calls for the possibility to be studied of establishing an international model for negotiations on the end of Crimea's occupation, with the participation of the EU. This model would be based on international humanitarian law, human rights and the principles of international law, the Parliament states. The MEPs say that the EU must play a more visible, more effective and more proactive role in the search for a sustainable peaceful solution. They also ask the EU special representative for human rights to pay unfailing attention to the situation in Crimea.
In the Parliament's view, the Council should find ways to help Ukraine have Russia's responsibility recognised by the international justice court, with regard to supporting terrorism in eastern Ukraine and acts of discrimination against Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea. In the same way, new restrictive measures against the people responsible for serious human rights violations should be adopted, the European Parliament states.
The Parliament criticises the significant worsening of the human rights situation, especially regarding Crimean Tatars, and it states that despite the illegal annexation, Russia is de facto fully responsible for maintaining legal order and protecting Crimean citizens against arbitrarily taken legal or administrative measures. Russia must also ensure the protection of human rights and uphold fundamental freedoms in Crimea, and it must carry out effective inquiries into all cases of human rights violations, the MEPs add, asking for international organisations to have unlimited, safe and unhindered access to the peninsula.
Russia must also immediately release all Ukrainian citizens who have been detained illegally and arbitrarily on its territory or in the temporarily-occupied Ukrainian territories, and authorise them to move freely, the MEPs state. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)