The European Parliament called the Council of the European Union to introduce additional sanctions against russia due to its war against Ukraine.
It is stated in the resolution adopted at the plenary meeting in Strasbourg on Thursday, 01 April. The resolution was adopted by 513 votes of the MEPs with 22 - against, and 19 – abstained, informs DW.
The resolution states that the Council of the European Union should approve the following “strict sanctions that would reflect the intensifying escalation of russian aggression and shocking atrocities committed by the armed forces of russia, those undoubtedly representing war crimes”.
Although the resolution is formally devoted to the results of the EU summit, sanctions against russia were its main topic.
The European Parliament could not fail to mention the topic of Bucha. In its resolution, the European Parliament expressed its indignation about “atrocities which became known, including rapes and killing civilians, forced displacement, looting and attacks on civil infrastructure, in particular, on hospitals, medical institutions, schools, shelters, and ambulances, and shooting at civilians trying to evade the conflict zone by the preliminary agreed humanitarian corridors, such actions committed by the armed forces of Russia in a group of occupied Ukrainian cities, like Bucha.”
Members of the European Parliament stressed that those who committed war crimes as well as high-ranked officials and officers have to be held accountable.
“The European Parliament calls on introduction of immediate full embargo on imports of Russian oil, coal, nuclear fuel, and gas, totally refuse from the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2, and to present the plan of ensuring security of energy sources supply to the EU in the short-term perspective,” is stated in the resolution.
There has been much debate over this aspect among MEPs, according to the edition. The first version of the resolution had an embargo on gas supplemented with “as soon as possible”. This phrasing was amended by three amendments offered by various members, those actually repeating themselves. As a result, 413 members voted for the resolution having called on the immediate embargo on four types of energy sources from the rf.
The EU is already discussing sanctions on the import of russian coal. Refusal from oil of the rf is considered also possible within a year. But some say in the European Union that gas cannot be fully replaced yet.
The resolution calls on a set of other restrictions. In particular, the members of the European Parliament support disconnection of Russian banks from the financial transactions messaging system SWIFT.
The European Parliament also believes that all ships under the rf flag, being registered in russia, being russian property or charter ship, should be banned to enter not only EU ports but also its territorial waters. The same should apply to the ships going to and from Russian harbors.