The former president of the European Commission tells Euronews that the integral sanctions imposed by the EU Moscow inevitably force the block to any negotiation on a peace agreement.
Russia is the “first to be interested in having Europe associated” to future peaceful conversations in Ukraine, José Manuel Durão Barroso, former president of the European Commission, told Euronews, in a live interview, on Friday morning and hours after the 27 EU leaders finished a summit in Brussels.
“Mr. Putin said it: there will be no peace without the survey of the sanctions imposed by the European Union,” Durão Barroso explained.
“Sooner or later, the European Union will come, because there will be no peace without the European Union. It is evident.”
Until now, the European Union has been widely excluded from telephone diplomacy between the presidents of the United States, Ukraine and Russia and the technical conversations between their teams in the Middle East.
Emmanuel Macron de France and Keir Starmer from the United Kingdom are gathering a coalition of countries with similar ideas, willing to play their role in a possible agreement of high fire and peace, but so far they have not been directly involved in the conversations.
But Barroso says that Russia will inevitably want to present the sanctions of EU sanctions in any possible peace conversation. Since the beginning of the war, more than three years ago, the block has adopted 16 sanctions of unprecedented and unprecedented sanctions in an attempt to weaken Kremlin’s war.
Although Hungary opposed the measures at various times, the block has always been able to convince Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to agree with the deepening of the sanctions, a decision that requires the unanimous blessing of all member states.
Last week, after weeks of resistance, Budapest dropped his veto to renewal of sanctions aimed at the renowned Russians.
“I was in the commission (European) in 2014, when Orban opposed the sanctions against Russia. But despite this opposition, the EU adopted 16 sanctions packages,” Durão Barroso explained.
European leaders “act in crisis”
The former head of the European Commission spoke hours after a summit of EU leaders ended in Brussels, where, as expected, Hungary vetoed the conclusions about Ukraine due to his opposition to kyiv’s adhesion to the block and the strategy of “peace through the strength of the EU” to assemble Ukraine as a deterrence of the Russian invasion.
In the statement adopted at age 26, the block said it was ready to impose new sanctions on Kremlin.
Durão Barroso denied that the EU unit is undo, stating that it is “natural” to have necklines and that 26 countries can reach an agreement on a wide range of affairs.
“Can you show me any other place in the world where 26 countries agree on as many issues such as the European Union? Asked Barroso.
“It is a complete mistake to think that one or two countries have different opinions, the European Union cannot act,” he continued, explaining that the EU treaties allow a group of countries to advance unanimous initiatives.
Durão Barroso also declared that the seriousness of the current geopolitical situation will inevitably lead to the EU to act, citing the adhesion of Finland and Sweden to NATO and the adjustment of the German debt brake as clear signs of his willingness to take unprecedented measures.
