The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced on Wednesday 22 April that he will visit Ukraine on his first trip after the COVID-19 crisis. He was scheduled to go there in mid-March, but the trip was cancelled just before the borders were closed (see EUROPE 12447/25).
“The first thing I will do when the situation returns to normal is to visit Ukraine [...], to pay close attention to the Eastern Partnership”, he promised at the end of the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Council. He added that his trip to Eastern Europe would include Belarus.
At their meeting, the ministers revisited European support for the Eastern Partnership countries during this time of pandemic. “They agreed that the current crisis is an opportunity to demonstrate that the EU is the most reliable partner for these countries”, Borrell said. The EU has announced support of more than EUR 840 million to these countries to cope with the crisis (see EUROPE 12457/12).
An EU-Eastern Partnership summit is also scheduled for 19 June in Brussels, a summit that Mr Borrell hopes will take place (see EUROPE 12449/23).
The Council focused in particular on Ukraine and, according to the High Representative, it expressed “strong support” for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “He has taken bold steps for reform and conflict resolution. Significant progress has been made on reforms, but many obstacles remain, and these efforts must continue”, Borrell said. He cited as an example the thousands of amendments filed in the Ukrainian Parliament on the media freedom law, “which is a way to block adoption”. Freedom of the media, the fight against corruption, an independent judiciary, and the Rule of law are the cornerstones of the political systems of EU countries, he asserted.
While the topic of lifting of sanctions against Russia to deal with the COVID-19 crisis was reportedly not raised by ministers (see EUROPE 12456/34), earlier in the day the head of the Russia division of the European External Action Service, Audrone Perkauskiene, explained that European measures were not designed to hit the Russian economy or population. They should therefore have no impact on the Russian response to the coronavirus. “The lifting of sanctions is linked to the full implementation of the Minsk Accords”, she said during a discussion at the German Marshall Fund.
For his part, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada, Andriy Shevchenko, called for improved international cooperation on measures towards Russia. In his view, sanctions should also be better targeted, whether they are individual or sectoral. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)