The resolution on the EU position on the peace plan for Ukraine was drafted by five groups across a broad political spectrum: Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), European People’s Party (EPP), Renew, Socialists and Democrats (S&D), and Greens. It was supported by the vote of 401 MEPs. Among the 70 against and 90 abstaining were almost all of Patriots for Europe and Europe of Sovereign Nations—the two ultra-right groups—and The Left, the radical left group. Among the Italians, only the Lega and Movimento 5 Stelle delegations opposed the resolution.
While recognising “the efforts of the US administration” to end the war, the EU Parliament points the finger at “Washington’s political ambivalence towards Kyiv.” That is why, reads the text, the Strasbourg Chamber “urges the EU and its member states to show leadership in this crucial geopolitical moment,” to “continue to work with the United States and like-minded partners,” to ensure “that negotiations for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine are grounded in the principles of international law” and “are conducted in good faith.”
MEPs reiterated the principles on which any peace agreement should be based, in line with what European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said yesterday in the Chamber. First of all, “a ceasefire,” backed by “robust security guarantees” for Kyiv from the EU and the US—equivalent to the mutual assistance clauses provided for in Article 5 of the NATO Treaty and Article 42.7 of the EU Treaty—and no limitations on “Ukraine’s ability to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
The text also states that “no temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory will be legally recognised by the EU and its member states as Russian territory.” Then there is the issue of the reconstruction of Ukraine: the EU Parliament made it clear that any peace agreement “must oblige Russia to fully compensate Ukraine for all material and immaterial harm and damage it has caused”
in the attacked country. Hence, the call to ‘adopt and implement, without further delay, a reparation loan backed by the frozen Russian assets.” Finally, the European Parliament called for sanctions on Moscow not to be lifted “before a peace agreement is negotiated and implemented.”
Amendments to the text proposed by The Left on the one hand, and by the Patriots on the other, were returned to the sender. This included any reference to the ongoing corruption scandal in Ukraine and the risk of escalation from the arms race that had started in Europe.
For Lucia Annunziata, an MEP elected in the lists of the Democratic Party, “the exclusion of Europe from the negotiating table has served to find an unprecedented unity in Parliament, with a clarity and commitments that had not been seen until now.” Yet, Annunziata warned, “we must not hide from the fact that a plan proposed by the United States is being discussed in retrospect, in which the European role in the negotiations is not clear for the time being.”
The 5 Star Movement delegation branded the resolution as “a clumsy attempt to put a spoke in the wheel of the ongoing peace process” because it sets conditions that “make negotiations difficult, if not impossible.” For the 5 Star MDPs, “after almost four years since the beginning of the conflict, a bad peace is better than a dirty war.”
