The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, welcomed on 1st May a videoconference Normandy Format meeting the previous day of Foreign Ministers (Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine), the first since the Paris Summit on 9 December (see EUROPE 12387/22).
On Twitter, Mr Borrell stressed the EU’s full support for the implementation of the measures agreed at the summit. “It is essential to continue working on the full implementation of the Minsk Accords, including a durable and comprehensive ceasefire”, he said, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic made this even more urgent.
On the same day, the spokesman of the European External Action Service, Peter Stano, recalled that the EU expected Russia and the armed formations it supports to allow freedom of movement across the Line of Contact to areas not controlled by the government, whether for the OSCE Special Observer Mission or humanitarian actors (see EUROPE 12454/30).
According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at their meeting, the Ministers agreed to call for the implementation of a comprehensive ceasefire between the parties and to ask the Trilateral Contact Group to act in this direction. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)