In a resolution it adopted on Thursday 6 October (504 votes in favour, 26 against and 36 abstentions), the European Parliament calls on Member States to “fully implement” the European Commission’s guidelines on issuing visas to Russian citizens refusing, inter alia, to fight in Ukraine (see EUROPE 13033/12), “in full compliance with EU and international law”, and to ensure that all asylum applications are processed “on an individual basis, taking into account the security concerns of the host Member States”.
However, MEPs rejected an amendment from the Renew Europe group which called on Member States to “adopt a common” European “position on Russian deserters and people fleeing the call for mobilisation” issued by President Vladimir Putin.
As expected (see EUROPE 13036/5), the European Parliament urges Member States to “massively” increase their military assistance so that Ukraine can regain control of all the territories occupied by the Russian army, including Crimea. “The hesitations of those who support Ukraine only prolong the war and cost the lives of innocent Ukrainians”, it said.
MEPs condemn the sham referendums conducted in violation of the UN Charter in the oblasts (provinces) of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia with a view to their annexation by Russia. They consider the results of these consultations “null and void”.
Calling for more sanctions against Russia, they reiterate their demand for “an immediate and total embargo on imports of fossil fuels and uranium”, the abandonment of the Nord Stream I and II gas pipelines, a ban on the import of “titanium, aluminium, copper, nickel, palladium, rhodium and diamonds, raw or processed” from Russia, as well as “steel products, including iron ore and semi-finished products”. And they call for minimising Russia’s access to “basic industrial resources, technologies and services, in particular those needed by the military industry of the aggressor state”.
Reacting to the recent Nord Stream I and II pipeline explosions, Parliament believes that they cannot be a “coincidence and are increasingly assumed to be the result of a coordinated and deliberate act by a state actor”. These explosions show how “the use of energy as a weapon has been taken to a new level”. Member States are invited to strengthen the protection of critical European infrastructure (gas pipelines, submarine cables).
Finally, condemning Russian threats to use nuclear weapons, the European Parliament calls on Member States to prepare a “rapid and decisive” response in the event of a Russian nuclear strike against Ukraine.
See the adopted resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/3g7 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)