By Vestnik Kavkaza
MP of the European Parliament Rebecca Harms has urged the EU leadership to organize an extra summit on Russia. “The undeclared war in Eastern Ukraine threatens global security. All involved sides should sit down to talk as soon as possible,” Harms thinks.
Earlier, Latvia, which is chairing the EU at the moment, urged the Union to hold an extra meeting of the EU Council on the situation in Ukraine at the level of foreign ministers.
Meanwhile, in the context of sanctions and the Ukrainian crisis, the head of the EU office in Moscow, Vygaudas Ušackas, believes in a revival of relations between the RF and the EU in 2015: “The year was started with active contacts between representatives of the EU and Russia. All ambassadors of the EU met and talked effectively with the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov on January 13th. On January 14th Maroš Šefčovič, the vice president of the European Commission for Energy, visited Moscow and met deputy prime minister Dvorkovich, minister Noval, and head of Gazprom Miller. It was the first visit by such a top representative of the EU since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. Moreover, last Monday the Foreign Minister of the EU paid great attention to strategic relations with Russia, there was a constructive talk, a meeting, and a discussion.”
According to Ušackas, these facts show “the attention which is paid to relations with Russia by the EU, as we live in one continent and have common history.”
“Even in the periods of sharpest political tension, if Russia continues a dialogue on various issues we will continue our dialogue on such hot points of the world policy as Iran, Syria, the Middle East conflict, Afghanistan. The developments in Paris reminded us of the necessity of consolidating our efforts in the struggle against terrorism. We are also interested in development of relations in the bilateral form on spheres which are not covered by restricted measures and so-called sanctions. And we will continue our bilateral programs in this context, as they are very important to preserve our relations which have been forming for 20 years,” the head of the EU office in Moscow said.
