The condemnation of Russia’s recognition of the separatist territories was almost unanimous across parties in the European Parliament on Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 February.
On Monday evening, 21 February, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, denounced in no uncertain terms the announcements made by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. This is “a blatant violation of international law, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the Minsk agreements”, she said. And she assured that the European Union will not leave the “Ukrainian people” to “their aggressors”.
The same indictment was made by the chairs and co-chairs of the political groups. Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany), Iratxe García (S&D, Spain), Stéphane Séjourné (Renew Europe, France), Manon Aubry (The Left, France), Philippe Lamberts (Greens/EFA, Belgium), and Ryszard Legutko (ECR, Poland) all condemned the violation of international law and the risk to European security posed by the Russian decision.
The Parliament issued a press release reporting a unanimous condemnation from the “leading” MEPs, in this case mostly EPP and ECR MEPs of German and Polish origin.
They include the chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, David McAllister (EPP, Germany), the chair of the Delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, Witold Waszczykowski (ECR, Poland), the chair of the Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, Ryszard Czarnecki (ECR, Poland), the Parliament’s Rapporteur on Ukraine, Michael Gahler (EPP, Germany), and the Parliament’s Permanent Rapporteur on Russia, Andrius Kubilius (EPP, Lithuania).
There were a few dissenting voices, such as Mick Wallace (The Left, Ireland), who lamented that the UK and US were arming “Nazi” militias in Ukraine to harm Russia. Manu Pineda (The Left, Spain) retweeted on his Twitter account a link to an article according to which the US government had funded an “anti-Russian narrative” in Ukraine. On the other side of the political spectrum, Jordan Bardella (Identity and Democracy, France) recalled the need for his country to leave NATO, quoting the late General Charles de Gaulle.
UEFA. Finally, several MEPs, including Tiziana Beghin (NI, Italy), wrote to UEFA asking it to stop organising football competitions in Russian stadiums and to end its sponsorship contract with Russian gas company Gazprom. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)