Activities of Bernard GUETTA related to 2021/2042(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Direction of EU-Russia political relations (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on a European Parliament recommendation to the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on the direction of EU-Russia political relations
Amendments (161)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation -1 (new)
Citation -1 (new)
— having regard to the resolutions adopted by the Parliament and recalled below reflecting the need to counter the external interferences of Mr Putin's regime and the constant violations of freedoms and human rights in Russia; the will of the European Union to stabilise the European continent while respecting international borders, the sovereignty of States and good neighbourly relations with the Russian Federation; its conviction that, like all people, the Russian people aspire to the universal values of freedom and democracy; the opportunity to present to the Russian people concrete proposals for mutually beneficial cooperation,
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
— having regard to the joint communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social committee and the committee of the Regions - Tackling Covid-19 disinformation -Getting the facts right (JOIN/2020/8 final),
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas the European Parliament distinguishes - the Russian people and the Putin’s regime - and critical actions proposed in this report are directed towards the Putin’s regime, while stressing the urgent need to reach out to the Russian people and show that the EU is welcoming to them;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas Russia is an integral part of Europe and the biggest neighbour of European Union and the developments in Russia, its policies and character of its authorities are directly affecting EU’s immediate neighbourhood;
Amendment 14 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A
Recital -A
-A. whereas the Union's relations with the Russian Federation must be based on the principles of international law, democracy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts, and whereas the current Russian government has shown contempt for these principles;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
-Aa. whereas Russia is an authoritarian state run by President Vladimir Putin and his loyalists, in which there are no free and fair elections, both the State Duma and the Council of the Federation are submissive to Mr Putin’s orders, opposition forces are under constant intimidation and threat, which includes searches of their offices, arrests and imprisonment sentences, assassination attempts and actual killings;
Amendment 16 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
-Aa. whereas the main interest of the EU is to keep stability and peace on the European continent, which is being threatened by aggressive external policies of the Russian authorities;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital –A a (new)
Recital –A a (new)
-Aa. whereas the Russian Federation has committed itself to the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights through its membership of the Council of Europe and the OSCE;
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital –A b (new)
Recital –A b (new)
-Ab. whereas the EU is Russia's largest trading partner, while Russia is the EU's fifth largest trading partner;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A b (new)
Recital -A b (new)
-Ab. whereas the EU believes in a different future that Russia can have, with its people aspiring to the universal values of freedom and democracy;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital –A c (new)
Recital –A c (new)
-Ac. whereas the current Russian regime is stirring up animosity and mistrust in Russian civil society towards foreigners, particularly Europeans, and conveying the image of the West as an enemy, and whereas this misinformation has become the cultural and political foundation of the policy of Russian authorities, which are losing economic and social credibility and deepening the rupture between Russia and Europe;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A c (new)
Recital -A c (new)
-Ac. whereas the Freedom in the World 2021 report placed Russia in the category of ‘not free’ countries; whereas citizens’ fundamental freedoms are limited in Russia the election environment is controlled, Russian people are discouraged from public protests by the burdensome bureaucratic procedures established in order for citizens to receive a permission and by police violence during peaceful protests;
Amendment 23 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A c (new)
Recital -A c (new)
-Ac. whereas the EU strategy towards Russia needs to combine two major objectives: first, to stop the Kremlin’s external and domestic aggressiveness and second, to engage with the people of Russia and assist them in building a different future for Russia, which would benefit all the people on the European continent including the Russian;
Amendment 24 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
-Ad. whereas, according to the Memorial Human Rights Centre, the Russian authorities currently hold nearly 400 political prisoners in violation of the Russian Federation’s obligations under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 23 of the Concluding Document of the Vienna Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A d (new)
Recital -A d (new)
-Ad. whereas the Kremlin authority can be described as a stagnating authoritarian kleptocracy led by a president-for-life surrounded by a circle of oligarchs, who has started wars against his neighbours, assassinates opponents inside and outside Russia, interferes in the US’ and European elections, and acts as an anti- Western spoiler at every opportunity;
Amendment 26 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A e (new)
Recital -A e (new)
-Ae. whereas the organisers and masterminds of the 2015 assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov remain unidentified and unindicted, while the OSCE report on this issue has concluded that “the main issue for addressing impunity is not the capabilities of the Russian law enforcement, but political will”;
Amendment 27 #
-Ae. whereas President Putin’s approach is clearly revisionist, trying to extend control over territories he considers lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A f (new)
Recital -A f (new)
-Af. whereas the Kremlin’s regime continues the illegal occupation of territories and maintains frozen conflicts in Moldova (Transnistria), Georgia (Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia), interferes directly in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, engages in the destabilisation and effective control of parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts directly and through Russian and local mercenaries, and especially annexed Crimea to Russia violently and illegally; whereas the Kremlin’s regime continues to consider these actions as favourable to its interests;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A f (new)
Recital -A f (new)
-Af. whereas the media space in Russia is controlled and owned by the state, there is no public broadcaster, the remaining few independent media sources struggle financially and face persecution, including physical attacks and imprisonment of media workers; whereas since 1992, 58 journalists have been killed in Russia; whereas the “sovereign internet” law enables the government to block any unwanted Internet content;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A g (new)
Recital -A g (new)
-Ag. whereas the goals of Putin’s regime include the following elements: to assert its authority to be a great power; to consolidate the regime’s interference in post-Soviet countries and beyond; to place the sovereignty of powerful states above the sovereignty of other states; to use the concept of protecting ethnic Russians abroad as justification for hybrid war and disinformation; to use frozen conflicts areas as a strategic element for interfering in the affected country and preventing it from moving closer to the EU and NATO; to use energy resources and illicit money laundering practices as a tool for manipulation and blackmailing; to undermine the model of liberal democracy and to portray Russia as morally superior and the West as morally inferior; to supress democracy, democratic opposition and the right for the people to express free will in Russia;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A h (new)
Recital -A h (new)
Amendment 33 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A h (new)
Recital -A h (new)
-Ah. whereas the LGBTI+ community in Russia faces extensive discrimination, including harassment, torture, imprisonment and killings; whereas situation for LGBTI+ community is particularly dangerous in Chechnya, which in 2017 started its purge of LGBTI+ people, detaining and torturing dozens, with at least two killed, and many seeking for safe refuge abroad; whereas existing laws prohibit any public discussion on “non-traditional sexual relationships”;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A i (new)
Recital -A i (new)
-Ai. whereas the Putin regime rejects multilateralism and the rule of law based international order, disregards international law and Helsinki OSCE principles, as demonstrated by the 2020 constitutional reforms elevating Russian law above international law;
Amendment 35 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A i (new)
Recital -A i (new)
-Ai. whereas the behaviour of Russia’s current leadership poses one of the main challenges to the EU’s strategic and foreign policy agenda as well as to freedom, peace and security in Europe and beyond;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A k (new)
Recital -A k (new)
-Ak. whereas in 2019 Russia re-joined the Council of Europe but extensive violations of human rights continue, as well as its refusal to comply with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights;
Amendment 38 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A l (new)
Recital -A l (new)
-Al. whereas Russia uses other international institutions, primarily the UN and the OSCE, to prevent justice and conflict resolution worldwide;
Amendment 40 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A n (new)
Recital -A n (new)
-An. whereas a passportization policy is being used to boost the numbers of Russian compatriots and de facto incorporate into Russia citizens of territories occupied by it and breakaway territories, notably Transnistria, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Donbas and the Crimean Peninsula; whereas these Russian actions are a violation of international laws;
Amendment 42 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A p (new)
Recital -A p (new)
-Ap. whereas the Kremlin’s propaganda opposes Russian and European/Western values by calling the latter “rotten liberal- progressive West” and supports pro- Russian and other organizations of divisive nature that are able to undermine policies of national governments, spread defamation and demonise the West, especially the EU and NATO, promote hatred, intolerance and Soviet nostalgia, and rewrite the history of Soviet crimes;
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A q (new)
Recital -A q (new)
-Aq. whereas the “Russian World” is being promoted by state-owned media channels such as Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik in the native languages of the EU Member States; whereas the COVID-19 pandemic is being used by Kremlin’s propaganda to seed division among the EU Member States, portray the EU as unable to cope with the pandemic, seed doubts about the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, discourage EU citizens from vaccination, and rehabilitate Russia’s image in the eyes of EU population, particularly via the promotion of the Sputnik V vaccine;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A r (new)
Recital -A r (new)
-Ar. whereas the Russian “foreign agents” law adopted in 2012 was used to get rid of Western grant-giving organisations and deprive democracy- promoting local NGOs from essential funding, and has been gradually expanding and currently any ordinary citizen can be branded as a foreign agent for its political activity; whereas another law prohibits the financing of public events in Russia by foreign governments, organizations and other actors labelled as foreign agents;
Amendment 45 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A s (new)
Recital -A s (new)
-As. whereas Russian embassies, consulates and their affiliated cultural centres in the EU Member States are offering free cultural events and Russian language lessons and numerous local NGOs and radical groups, including political movements, receive Russian funding;
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A t (new)
Recital -A t (new)
-At. whereas the Russian financial support for political parties and movements is a direct interference into the democratic processes of the EU and its Member States, as these parties and movements promote Russia’s interests as well as values contradictory to those of the EU;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A u (new)
Recital -A u (new)
-Au. whereas the EU and its Member States institutions as well as objects of strategical importance, leadership and democratic processes such as elections are the constant target of Russian cyber- attacks;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A v (new)
Recital -A v (new)
-Av. whereas Putin’s Russia seeks to maintain its influence in the former Soviet space at any cost, it rejects the right of self-determination of neighbouring countries and openly disrupts their efforts to implement pro-European democratic reforms and jeopardises their ambitions to join the EU and NATO;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital -A w (new)
Recital -A w (new)
-Aw. whereas Russia remains engaged in several parts of the world and seeks to disrupt EU influence in the Eastern Partnership region, the Western Balkans, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America; whereas Russia establishes alternative models for cooperation such as the Eurasian Economic Union not necessarily with the intention to demonstrate its superiority, but to oppose the EU and the West in general;
Amendment 58 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas Russiathe current Russian regime is continuing its aggressive behaviour on the border with Ukraine and interfering with acts of terrorism on the territory of EU Member States, such as Czechia, and its eastern neighbours, inter alia by supporting the illegitimate regime of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus;
Amendment 59 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas Russia is continuing its aggressive behaviour on the border with Ukraine and interfering with acts of terrorism on the territory of EU Member States, such as Czechia, and its eastern neighbours, inter alia by supporting the illegitimate regime of Alexiaksander Lukashenkoa in Belarus;
Amendment 61 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the Kremlin’s regime has in several weeks of March and April 2021 substantially increased its military presence on the eastern and northern border of Ukraine, which is the biggest concentration of Russian troops since 2014; whereas the Kremlin regime suspended the right of passage for warships and commercial vessels of other countries through part of the Black Sea in the direction of the Kerch Strait, which is in violation of navigation rights guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Russia is a party;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Amendment 70 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas Russia uses its paramilitary organization (the “Wagner Group”) to support dictatorial regimes around the world and undermine the EU’s and international community’s efforts to mitigate conflicts, build peace and stability;
Amendment 74 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas illegal actions by the Kremlin regime on the territory of the United Kingdom, Czechia, Bulgaria, as well as many other EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries constitute a critical violation of their sovereignty; whereas the Kremlin regime is non-cooperative in investigating those crimes and is sheltering key suspects;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
Ad. whereas President Putin’s political and economic investment into the survival of the illegitimate Lukashenko regime is the only reason why Mr Lukashenko is still able to continue the brutal persecution of Belarusian people who are demanding respect for human rights, free and transparent elections, rule of law and justice; whereas from the summer of 2020 the illegitimate Lukashenko regime incarcerated more than 360 political prisoners and arrested, persecuted and in many cases tortured more than 30 000 protesters;
Amendment 83 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
Ae. whereas Kremlin continues its hybrid interference into EU domestic politics, mainly by building links between the Russian central authorities and the extreme right and populist nationalist parties and governments in the EU, which pose a threat to the fundamental values of the Union, i.e. the respect for democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights; whereas Putin’s Russia continues its efforts to destabilise EU candidate and associated Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries with the goal to create obstacles or to stop the process of their Euro- Atlantic integration;
Amendment 87 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
Af. whereas the EU dependency on imports of Russia’s energy products is one of the major threats to EU’s geopolitical security;
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A g (new)
Recital A g (new)
Ag. whereas more than 60 per cent of EU imports from Russia in 2019 were energy products; whereas the EU needs to reduce the dependency of its economy, especially in the energy sector, on Russian gas supplies to EU markets, which is now at 48 % and has a tendency to increase;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A h (new)
Recital A h (new)
Ah. whereas the Green Deal is a major instrument of the EU’s geopolitical security and according to the European Commission’s forecasts, if the Green Deal is implemented, the EU’s oil and natural gas imports by 2030 are expected to shrink dramatically with oil imports dropping by 78-79 % and natural gas imports by 58-67 % compared to 2015 figures;
Amendment 92 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A i (new)
Recital A i (new)
Ai. whereas the Russian Federation poses not only an external threat to European security, but is also waging an internal war on its own people in the form of the systematic oppression of the opposition and arrests on the streets; whereas Russia has continued to unlawfully detain its citizens and target opposition leaders, independent journalists, protesters, human rights activists; whereas the prison conditions in Russia remain dreadful and people imprisoned are subject to torture, harassment, physical attacks;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A j (new)
Recital A j (new)
Aj. whereas, according to the Memorial Human Rights Centre, the Russian authorities currently hold nearly 400 political prisoners in violation of the Russian Federation’s obligations under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Article 23 of the Concluding Document of the Vienna Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe;
Amendment 99 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the Kremlin’s regime continues the systemic repressions of democratic forces by means of a significant number of attempted poisonings and murders, arrests and political sentencings of main oppositioners and activists such as Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov, Alexander Litvinenko, Sergei and Yulia Skripal, Sergei Protazanov, Vladimir Kara-Murza and others; whereas the organisers of these crimes remain unidentified and unindicted; whereas the OSCE report on the murder of Boris Nemtsov has concluded that ‘the main issue for addressing impunity is not the capabilities of the Russian law enforcement, but the political will’;
Amendment 103 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the Russian authorities’ decision to declare the Anti-Corruption Foundation headed by Alexei Navalny an extremist organisation is baseless, discriminatory and has been adopted with only one goal: to destroy opposition’s possibilities to effectively participate in election campaigns; whereas the law on ‘foreign agents’ is allowing individuals, associations and media to be stigmatised as ‘foreign agents’, thereby violating human rights, in particular freedom of expression and association, restricting the citizens’ right to commit and contribute to Russian civil society and putting their personal safety at risk by bearing such a stigma;
Amendment 107 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas the Kremlin’s regime adopted the laws on persons or entities supporting ‘foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable foreign organisations’, by which it has systemically banned active members of civil society, human rights NGOs, and the opposition from participating in the 2021 Parliamentary elections in Russia;
Amendment 109 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas the Russian authorities are holding the key opposition players of parliamentary election campaign in prison or under home arrest; whereas continuing repressions by Russian authorities on opposition candidates by abusing the registration procedures and selectively targeting political opponents and civil society organisations in the streets and courts under fabricated cases will make it simply impossible to speak about fair parliamentary elections in September 2021, as by these actions the regime in Russia is destroying political competition and pluralist democracy as does the dictatorship in Belarus;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B e (new)
Recital B e (new)
Be. whereas the endlessly increasing systemic oppression by the Kremlin of the opposition in Russia is an eye opener for the whole international community and whereas the EU must be ready to face it and develop a coherent strategy of response if it wants to save its own reputation; whereas, in particular, the EU has to build an increasing pressure on the Kremlin regime in the run-up to the 2021 parliamentary election and in its aftermath in order to defend the right for the Russian people to have free elections;
Amendment 111 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B f (new)
Recital B f (new)
Bf. whereas in the light of recent developments in the area from Brest to Khabarovsk, Belarus and Russia are living through a moment of significant changes and the processes in both countries are very heavily influencing each other; whereas both regimes in Russia and Belarus are fearing the growing demand for change among their peoples, which is why stealing elections presents itself as a convenient political solution;
Amendment 120 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas these domestic developments are a warning to the EU of what may come in the preparation and in the aftermath of the September 2021 parliamentary elections in Russia, when Mr Putin, in the same manner as Mr Lukashenkoa in Belarus, is waging a war against the people of Russia;
Amendment 121 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas in July 2020 the Russian authorities enacted a series of constitutional amendments – including an amendment giving President Putin a waiver from presidential term-limits in 2024 – in a procedure that violated both Russian law and the Russian Federation’s OSCE obligations, and that the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) has assessed as ‘clearly inappropriate’; whereas the constitutional and legislative amendments further eroded the right to a fair trial in Russia, including by giving the President the power to nominate the judges of the Constitutional and Supreme Courts, and initiate the appointment of all federal judges and dismissal of senior federal judges;
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas the EU and Russia have longstanding trade relations, the EU is the largest trading partner for Russia, while Russia is the fifth largest trading partner for the EU, and the EU is the largest investor in Russia; whereas the EU is dependent on Russian gas and oil imports, which will further increase should the Nord Stream 2 project be completed;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
Cb. whereas Russia ranks 120 out of 180 countries in the 2020 Corruption Perception Index, as massive state-level corruption prevents Russian population from quality public services, which remain underfunded, including the public health care, which is of particular importance during the pandemic; whereas nearly 19 million of Russians live under the poverty line;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C c (new)
Recital C c (new)
Cc. whereas the Russian Government has approved a list of “unfriendly countries”, which includes Czechia and the United States;
Amendment 131 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas in its resolutions of 17 September 2020, 21 January 2021 and 29 April 2021 Parliament called upon High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell for a review of the EU’s policy vis-à-vis Russia, including the five guiding principles agreed in 2016, emphasised that future EU relations with Russia would depend on the pace of Russia’s democratic transformation and called for the EU institutions to devise a new strategic approach on the assumption that any dialogue with Russia must be based on respect for international law and human rights, in particular to develop a new comprehensive strategy, which will be conditional on further developments in the area of democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights by the Russian leadership and authorities;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas the European Parliament has also asked the Council to immediately start preparations and adopt an EU strategy for future relations with a democratic Russia, including a broad offer of incentives and conditions to strengthen domestic tendencies towards freedom and democracy;
Amendment 156 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas there is growing concern in the world about Russia's involvement in several international and national conflicts and there is a need for the European Union and the Russian Federation to find common ground, healthy and balanced relations, where their interests converge;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas the democratic transformation of Russia is a major geopolitical security interest of the EU, since democracies are not fighting each other and President Putin’s Russia remains the biggest challenge for European security;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas the latest developments in Russia have shown that the EU’s strategy on Russia needs to be much more proactive and have a clear-defined ‘engagement’ objective, which should focus not only on traditional so-called ‘selective’ engagement with the Kremlin, but rather on a ‘strategic’ engagement with the civil society of Russia to assist in the transformation of Russia towards democracy;
Amendment 160 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas the current confrontation between the EU and the government of the Russian Federation is not in the interests of either party and whereas this confrontation jeopardizes peace and stability of the entire European continent;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas a constructive relationship would still be in the interests of both parties and their peoples, although a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities will require closer cooperation and unity between the Member States and more strength and firmness in its response to any provocation and aggression from Moscow;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F d (new)
Recital F d (new)
Fd. whereas a successful, prosperous and democratic EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood is considered by the Kremlin as a threat to the stability of President Putin’s regime, because it may provide ‘soft power’ inspiration to ordinary people in Russia; whereas the democratisation of the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood, therefore, has crucial importance for the future democratisation of Russia; whereas the Kremlin’s true aim regarding the conflicts in this region is not to back particular sides or personalities but rather to delegitimise democratic change as a means of transferring power, to prevent the successful development of these states, to discredit liberal democracy, and to export Russia’s own system of power;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F d (new)
Recital F d (new)
Fd. whereas the EU must remain open to a dialogue and a reinforced relationship and would be prepared to return to relations based on cooperation with Russia if the Russian authorities fully respected their legal and international obligations and demonstrated in practice their commitment to restoring the trust that has been broken;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F e (new)
Recital F e (new)
Fe. whereas the EU strategy on Russia should support Russia on its path towards a democratic European type of country by (1) pushing back and adopting targeted sanctions on those within and close to the Kremlin, who are ready to steal or bribe elections or commit other major crimes against human rights and democracy values, both inside Russia and with tentacles in EU immediate neighbourhood, (2) making a success out of the Eastern Partnership countries by means of an ambitious EU integration policy and by developing the EU’s strategic responsibility and geopolitical leadership capacities needed for the implementation of such policies; this will inspire ordinary Russian people to seek democratic transformation of Russia, and (3) having a strategy of engagement with the pro-democratic society of Russia and setting out a path for future relations with Democratic Russia;
Amendment 166 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F e (new)
Recital F e (new)
Fe. whereas any new framework for relations between the EU and the Russian Federation must be based on full respect for international law and the founding principles of the OSCE;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F f (new)
Recital F f (new)
Ff. whereas one of the major challenges for EU will be to keep united strategy towards Russia, since Russia's policy towards the EU has for a long time been characterised by the will to side-line European institutions in favour of bilateral relations, attempt to add to EU- internal divisions and support the mostly right-wing nationalist anti-European parties and movements;
Amendment 168 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F g (new)
Recital F g (new)
Fg. whereas the transformation of Russia back into a democracy will depend on the willingness of the Russian people, and the EU must be ready to assist them in their wish to have a democratic country;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the EU strategy on Russia should be based on the assumption that Mr Putin will not change, but the people of Russia can transform their country into a democracy; if Ukrainians and Belarusians are ready to risk their lives for the sake of democracy and justice at home, - Russian people are not different;
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
Ha. whereas the role of the EU as a global actor and the foreign policy competences of the EU institutions should be strengthened;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H b (new)
Recital H b (new)
Hb. whereas it is in the Union's interest to strengthen the strategic, democratic and social progress of its eastern neighbourhood;
Amendment 198 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 (new)
Paragraph -1 (new)
-1. Affirms that the European Union must adopt a firmer and more forceful overall strategy towards the Russian authorities and that its Member States must unify their approaches towards Russia in order to strike a balance between firmness and openness to dialogue on issues of common interest;
Amendment 199 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 a (new)
Paragraph -1 a (new)
-1a. Stresses that the EU's foreign and security policy approach towards the Russian authorities requires greater coordination and coherence, in particular in strategic areas such as the European Defence Union, the European Energy Union, cyber defence, cyber terrorism and strategic communication tools;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 b (new)
Paragraph -1 b (new)
-1b. Recalls that HR/VP Josep Borrell outlined, after his visit to Moscow, the contours of a new strategy that the European Union should adopt towards Russia based on three pillars: retaliation, pressure and dialogue, and that it would be useful to identify the best tools to transform this vision into concrete policies;
Amendment 201 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 c (new)
Paragraph -1 c (new)
-1c. Is aware that the revanchism of the current government and its nostalgia for the Soviet borders are fuelling the mistrust of the countries formerly under the yoke of the Soviet Union, which, as members of the EU, would reluctantly consider any premature official dialogue with the Kremlin;
Amendment 202 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 d (new)
Paragraph -1 d (new)
-1d. Deplores the fact that the Russian authorities are tending to lock themselves into a privileged partnership with China, which can only weaken the Russian Federation and the entire European continent and, in particular, enable the Beijing authorities to expand their presence and influence in Central Asia and Siberia;
Amendment 203 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph -1 e (new)
Paragraph -1 e (new)
-1e. Stresses that it is nevertheless necessary to keep the channels of communication open with Russia, and in particular to promote dialogue in multilateral forums, notably the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Arctic Council or the Council of Europe;
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – introductory part
Paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Recommends that the Council, the Commission and the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (VP/HR) review, together with the Member States, the EU policy vis-à-vis Russiathe current regime of the Russian Federation, including the five guiding principles, and develop a comprehensive EU strategy towards Russia based on the following principles and actions:
Amendment 218 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a
Paragraph 1 – point a
(a) the EU, together with NATO and international partners, should deter Russia and keep stability in the EaP region by taking a more active role in the peaceful resolution of the ongoing conflicts and in the prevention of any future conflicts, by pressing Russia not to interfere in the region and to return the occupied territories in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood;
Amendment 224 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a
Paragraph 1 – point a
(a) the EU, together with NATO and international partners, should deter Russia and keep stability in the EaP region by pressing Russian authorities not to interfere in the region and to return the occupied territories in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood;
Amendment 230 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
(aa) the EU, in particular the Member States, should deliver on their commitments for collective defence made within the frameworks of the EU and NATO, which is the only power on the European continent that can deter Russia’s nuclear capabilities and this is why NATO cannot be replaced by the EU’s strategically autonomous military capabilities;
Amendment 235 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a b (new)
(ab) the EU needs to strengthen the cooperation of security services of EU Member states in order to be more effective in preventing Russian special services to implement on EU territory their terrorist attacks, poisoning or killing of opponents; and to work further with the US administration on the new measures to push-back on Kremlin’s sponsored terrorism;
Amendment 237 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a c (new)
(ac) the EU should have a strategic responsibility for stability and development in the EU neighbourhood, especially the Eastern Partnership region and should keep demanding Russia to implement its international obligations and give back control of the occupied territories, as well as remove its military resources from the sovereign territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, including in the Sea of Azov; the EU should keep its sanctions in place until Russia fully implements its commitments under the Minsk agreements;
Amendment 239 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a d (new)
(ad) the EU should be more effective in pushing back and broaden the scope of its sanctions to increase the price Russia pays for blocking the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the talks in the Normandy format; the EU should coordinate these measures with the US in order to increase their effectiveness;
Amendment 241 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point a e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point a e (new)
(ae) the EU should consider launching a series of security compacts – frameworks for increased security, military, intelligence, and cyber cooperation – with select friendly countries in the EU’s neighbourhood and start investing in military and security partnerships with countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia; the EU needs to involve strong security partners in its neighbourhood and should not see security coordination with these countries only through the prism of NATO enlargement; the EU in its security dialogue with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova should be ambitious, take into account its assessment of the security challenges on the ground, and coordinate the Member States’ military support to Ukraine and, if necessary, to the remaining Eastern Partnership countries with the provision of defensive weapons, in line with Article 51 of the UN Charter that allows individual and collective self- defence;
Amendment 245 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point b
Paragraph 1 – point b
(b) the EU should be ready to call for the exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system and to stop all the imports of oil and gas from Russia immediately if the Russian authorities continue their aggressive threats and military action against EU Member States and EaP neighbouring countries;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c
Paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the EU must have a clear goal and plans on how to cut its dependency on Russian gas and oil, at least while President Putin is in power; the EU needs to elaborate and implement a clear strategy on how to decrease dependency on Russian gas; the EU geopolitical security should have as a major priority the implementation of the Green Deal package to reduce EU’s dependency on Russia’s gas and oil supplies radically in the next 10 to 15 years, which includes measures, such as EU carbon leakage tax and decarbonisation initiatives with development of green hydrogen industries; the EU needs to implement immediately new physical measures, such as reverse flow capabilities and additional cross-border infrastructure between Member States; the EU needs to apply energy diversification, including by developing the new capacities for LNG imports, energy transition and decarbonisation initiatives, which are rapidly gaining traction and could lessen demand for fossil fuels thereby ending Russia’s energy dominance on the European continent;
Amendment 252 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c
Paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the EU must have a clear goal and plans on how to cut itswork towards the implementation of the European Green Deal and reduced dependency on Russian gas and oil, at least while President Putin is in power; the Nord Stream 2 threatens to increase this dependency, as well as finances Russian expansionism in neighbouring states;
Amendment 268 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
(ca) Considers as essential for the EU to invest in projects to strengthen its security and its joint military, counter- espionage, cyber and energy capacities;
Amendment 269 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point c b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point c b (new)
(cb) considers that the EU must step up its efforts to establish a genuine European defence within the framework of the strengthened Atlantic Alliance in order to be able to intervene with more effective, deployable, interoperable and sustainable military capabilities and forces, so as to project itself as a strong and confident international actor capable of deterring any aggression, threat or blackmail of a military nature;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – subheading 2
Paragraph 1 – subheading 2
Containing the current Russian threat – fighting Russian interference in the EU and Eastern neighbourhood countries
Amendment 292 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point d a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point d a (new)
(da) the EaP policy poses no threat to Russia and its relations with EaP countries; the EU must recognize the European aspirations of neighbouring countries and keep its own doors open for willing and capable countries, as there can be no compromises and concessions to appease Russia or follow its policy of spheres of influence;
Amendment 312 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e
Paragraph 1 – point e
(e) the EU should continue its work on the containment of Russian hybrid threats with instruments able to eliminate Russian hybrid influterferences from the EU and its Member States;
Amendment 314 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
(ea) increase resilience and strengthen capacities to react to hybrid treats posed by Russia and others: cyber-security, propaganda and disinformation; call out Russia each time it executes hybrid attack against the EU and the Member States; increase resilience to cyber-attacks and expand capacities of the EU StratCom, as there is a need to cover not only the East and the Western Balkans, but also disinformation in the EU space;
Amendment 317 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
(ea) the EU has to clean its own house from the Kremlin hybrid interferences and Kremlin’s money laundering practices having an impact on European political and business elites, if it wants to be effective in assisting the Russian people on their path towards democracy;
Amendment 320 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e a (new)
(ea) deplores the fact that Russian civil society organizations and NGOs are systematically deprived by the Russian authorities of the means to fight corruption;
Amendment 324 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e b (new)
(eb) ensure a swift implementation of the incoming proposals of the European Parliament Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation (INGE);
Amendment 325 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e b (new)
(eb) the EU needs to have a consolidated, well-coordinated and holistic anti-hybrid containment strategy, which must also address cyber security threats and traditional forms of espionage;
Amendment 326 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e c (new)
(ec) the EU needs to push-back the Kremlin’s activities designed to undermine the European project, destabilise our political system, raise divisions amongst Member States through fake news in social media, support for populist, extremist, mostly right-wing parties or political separatists, cyber- attacks against sensitive infrastructure and killings of exiled opponents; the EU should limit the flow of Russian online disinformation campaigns by punishing people responsible for spreading Russian disinformation;
Amendment 328 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e c (new)
(ec) strengthen the EU’s role as a global player, as well as the capacities of the EU institutions, not allow Russia to continue a so-called bilateralization of relations with the EU, as Brussels should be the only capital where key decisions about the EU-Russia relations are taken;
Amendment 329 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e d (new)
(ed) the EU should boost cooperation with its Eastern Partners and learn from their expertise and experiences in the sphere of hybrid threats, traditional espionage, cyber security and the fight against disinformation; the EU needs to acknowledge that the Eastern Partnership countries possess a unique experience and knowledge of Russia’s interfering strategies and modus operandi, which is of a great value to the EU and its Member States;
Amendment 330 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e d (new)
(ed) the EU should maintain close coordination with transatlantic partners in implementing decisions towards Russia, and, in coordination with transatlantic partners, consider additional sanctions to Russia should it fail to reduce tensions on Ukraine’s borders; sanctions against Russia can only be lifted or mitigated once Russia has fully implemented the Minsk agreements;
Amendment 331 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e e (new)
(ee) the EU should be alerted by the role Kremlin is playing in the Western Balkans, which includes state-backed disinformation and building political and military ties to the regional political elites; the Kremlin’s interference in the elections and support of anti-democratic forces in the Western Balkan region remains an issue notably in the countries, which are also the members of NATO;
Amendment 332 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e f (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e f (new)
(ef) the EU needs to respond to the fact that the President Putin is openly supporting Mr Lukashenka’s regime in its brutal repressions against the people in Belarus and collaborates with Lukashenka on hybrid attacks against democratic forces of Belarus; President Putin’s support, manipulations and interference in Belarus is the only reason why Mr Lukashenka’s regime still keeps massively repressing Belarusian people; the EU needs to make it clear that this way the Kremlin is posing a direct threat to the sovereignty of Belarus, and has to demand that, if Russia continues this kind of policy on Belarus, the EU will have to introduce additional harsh measures of containment and deterrence of Russia;
Amendment 333 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e g (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e g (new)
(eg) the EU needs to build its strategy on Russia on the understanding that by defending democracy in Belarus, the EU also supports democracy in Russia;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e h (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e h (new)
(eh) in order to contain President Putin’s revisionist conduct towards his neighbours, the EU needs to further consolidate and strengthen its ties with the Eastern neighbourhood countries and to intensify its work for the rapprochement of these countries with the EU, in particular by taking into account that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are showing the same development and integration progress as the Western Balkan countries, therefore the EU needs to explore further areas of cooperation to bring a new momentum for European integration in these countries;
Amendment 335 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e i (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e i (new)
(ei) the EU in its engagement with Russia should work towards two directions: conditional selective dialogue with Kremlin authorities and strategic engagement with the civil society of Russia, which is striving for democracy in Russia;
Amendment 336 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e j (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e j (new)
(ej) the EU strategy towards Russia should not preclude engaging with the Kremlin authorities where it is in the interest of the EU; without undermining the EU’s commitments to human rights and democracy goals, as it is still important for the EU to find ways to de- escalate current tensions by identifying measures to increase transparency and reduce the risk of misunderstandings and miscalculations;
Amendment 337 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e k (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e k (new)
(ek) the EU should keep options for dialogue with Russia on topics of common interest, for example, in areas such as, implementation of arms control policy on European continent, return to Open Skies treaty, having the JCPOA with Iran fully operational again, the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement, of which Russia is a signatory;
Amendment 338 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e l (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e l (new)
(el) the EU must ensure that any further engagement with the Kremlin should depend on the Kremlin’s promise to end its domestic aggression against its own people, to stop systemic repressions of the opposition, intimidation and torture of political prisoners, to repeal the legislation on the foreign agents, to stop the repressions of civil society organisations, in particular of the ones fighting corruption and defending human rights in Russia, and to end its external aggression against the neighbouring countries;
Amendment 339 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e m (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e m (new)
(em) in particular, in this context, the EU should call on the Russian Federation to cooperate fully with the investigation of major international crimes, incidents and tragedies, such as the downing of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, as well other recent incidents involving the participation of the Russian intelligence services in the territory of EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries, including in Belarus;
Amendment 340 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e n (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e n (new)
(en) in its attempts for engagement with the Kremlin, the EU must have clearly defined red lines: the EU should not seek any grand bargain with Kremlin, if the Kremlin will seek a free hand at home and a free hand in its zone of privileged interests (Ukraine, Belarus, etc.); the EU must make it absolutely clear that it will not sacrifice other countries on the altar of better relations with Moscow;
Amendment 341 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e n (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e n (new)
(en) the EU should reiterate its call made on numerous occasions upon the Russian authorities to return to Poland the wreckage and black boxes of the Tu- 154 Polish Government aeroplane, which crashed near Smolensk in April 2010;
Amendment 342 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e o (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e o (new)
(eo) the EU should urgently equip itself with the necessary resources and tools to analyse and effectively counter Russian State and non-state actors’ hybrid threats and multiple forms of interferences in our democratic systems, including in the cyberspace;
Amendment 343 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e p (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e p (new)
Amendment 344 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e q (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e q (new)
(eq) the EU should establish a regulatory framework to fight the Russian financing of our democratic processes, including the strategy of elite capture and the technique of co-opting top-level civil servants and former European politicians; it should respond to and prevent the funding, by Russian actors, of political parties, political movements and political campaigns;
Amendment 345 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e r (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e r (new)
(er) the EU should fight against Russian state-backed investments in strategic policy areas, strategic infrastructures and bodies, including universities, which risk creating or reinforcing the dependency of certain economic sectors on Russia and can serve as entry points for Russian espionage and security threats;
Amendment 346 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e s (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e s (new)
(es) the EU should deepen comprehensive cooperation with strategic partners who are facing similar hybrids threats and attacks from Russian state and non-state actors;
Amendment 347 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point e t (new)
Paragraph 1 – point e t (new)
(et) concerning the fight against harassment, intimidations and attacks against Russian refugees and asylum seekers in Europe, the EU Members States should refrain from allowing or enabling deportations and extraditions of political opponents and asylum seekers to Russia, where their life or physical integrity would be in danger;
Amendment 352 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point f
Paragraph 1 – point f
(f) the EU should establish with the US a transatlantic alliance to defend democracy globally and propose a democracy defence toolkit, which should include joint actions on sanctions, anti- money laundering policies, rules on the conditionality of economic and financial assistance, international investigations, and support for human rights activists and defenders of democracy; the EU transatlantic agenda should include a policy to support democracy in Russia and Belarus alongside China, Hong Kong and other countries;
Amendment 368 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g
Paragraph 1 – point g
(g) in line with the ‘democracy first’ principle, the EU should strengthen the requirement of conditionality in its relations with Russia by including in any dialogue or agreement with Russia measures aimed at protecting human rights and the holding of free elections; accordingly, the EU and its Member States should revise their investment support and economic cooperation projects, starting with the halting of the Nord Stream 2 project, which in addition to increasing the EU dependency on Russian gas, will expose Ukraine to Russian malevolence and pressure to recognize the autonomy of separatist regions;;
Amendment 372 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g
Paragraph 1 – point g
(g) in line with the ‘democracy first’ principle, the EU should strengthen the requirement of conditionality in its relations with Russia by including in any dialogue or agreement with Russia measures aimed at protecting human rights, including in the territories illegally occupied by the Russian Federation, and the holding of free elections; accordingly, the EU and its Member States should revise their investment support and economic cooperation projects, starting with the halting of the Nord Stream 2 project;
Amendment 378 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g a (new)
(ga) the EU should apply the ‘democracy first’ principle in its reassessment of the financial support programmes to Russia and investments in Russia, which among other measures should include a revision of the lending mandates of EU’s financial institutions; in the same spirit, the EU should review its cooperation with Russia in various foreign policy platforms;
Amendment 380 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g b (new)
Amendment 382 #
(gc) the EU should expand the EU global human rights sanctions regime and apply it to the grave human rights abuses in all territories affected by frozen conflicts or occupied regions of the Eastern Partnership countries to address the human rights violations for which the Russian Federation is accountable in accordance with international law;
Amendment 383 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g c (new)
(gc) increase efforts to curb the Kremlin’s strategic investments, which often stem from the EU Member States through the financial flows of Russian oligarchs and companies set up to fund Russia’s malign interference and spread of corruption in the EU;
Amendment 384 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g d (new)
Amendment 386 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g e (new)
(ge) strengthen the European banking system in order to detect and prevent money laundering by Russia and other countries;
Amendment 387 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g f (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g f (new)
(gf) initiate a review of Russia's compliance with its commitments to the Council of Europe;
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point h
Paragraph 1 – point h
(h) the EU should increase its ability to prepare and adopt sanctions against the Russian authorities for their systemic repression of democratic forces in Russia and to centralise EU decision-making by making the triggering of sanctions automatic in cases of corruption or violation of human rights, including by updating the EU global human rights sanctions mechanism (EU Magnitsky Act) to address cases of corruption;
Amendment 408 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point i a (new)
(ia) the EU should deny recognition of any attempt by President Putin to continue in office beyond the end of his current and final presidential mandate on 7 May 2024, should he attempt to do so on the basis of fraudulent 2020 constitutional amendments as concluded by the Venice Commission;
Amendment 416 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point j
Paragraph 1 – point j
(j) the EU should establish a centralised anti-money laundering framework, including an EU authority for financial controls, to be put under Parliament’s supervision and to be entrusted with the protection of the EU and its Member States from illicit financial practices and influterferences from Russia;
Amendment 417 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point j a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point j a (new)
(ja) the EU should create as soon as possible effective legal means to counter trans-border corruption and related money laundering, especially when it concerns corruption and illicit financing practices coming from Russia, and apply much more extensively the non- conviction-based confiscation (NCBC) to deal effectively with the Kremlin kleptocracy;
Amendment 418 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point j b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point j b (new)
(jb) the EU should penalize the Russian assets used directly and indirectly to interfere in the democratic processes of EU Member States and Eastern Partnership countries;
Amendment 419 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point j c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point j c (new)
(jc) the EU should build capacity to expose and stop the flows of dirty money from Russia and Belarus, as well as to expose the hidden treasures and financial assets of Russian and Belarusian regimes’ autocrats and corrupted oligarchs in the EU Member States, as well as to report periodically on these cases to semi-annual hearings of the European Parliament on the state of democracy in Russia in Belarus; these reports should include the names of the most important members of Putin and Lukashenka entourage, as well as should reveal Russia's financial interferences in Belarus, including in strategic sectors like military, energy or transport;
Amendment 420 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point j d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point j d (new)
(jd) the EU must include Russia and Belarus into a list of third countries with a high risk of money laundering, which should be instrumental to have a stronger EU control of all financial flows originating from Russia and Belarus;
Amendment 430 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point k a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point k a (new)
(ka) must call all the national governments and the international organisations to conduct inquiries on hidden patrimonies of the main Russian leaders and oligarchs and publicize those figures;
Amendment 433 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point k a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point k a (new)
(ka) demand that the Russian authorities release all those unjustly imprisoned for political reasons, including Alexei Navalny, Alexei Pichugin, Yuri Dmitriev, and all the others designated by the Memorial Human Rights Centre as “political prisoners” in accordance with the criteria of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Resolution 1900 (2012)
Amendment 450 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point l
Paragraph 1 – point l
(l) the EU should confront the Russian-language propaganda of President Putin’s regime and support the establishment of a Free Russia Free Television with 24/7 airtime;
Amendment 472 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n
Paragraph 1 – point n
(n) the EU should look in to the future of EU relations with a free, prosperous and democratic ‘Russia after President Putin’; the EU should adopt and announce a strategic vision for its future relations with a democratic Russia, which should include a broad offer with conditions and incentives such as visa liberalisation, free trade investment and modernisation programmes, and a strategic partnership; it should also convey the potential benefits that it is willing to offer in return for a democratic transformation of Russia;
Amendment 474 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n
Paragraph 1 – point n
(n) the EU should adopt and announcpromote a strategic vision for its future relations with a democratic Russia, which should include a broad offer with conditions and incentives such as visa liberalisation, free trade investment and modernisation programmes, and a strategic partnership aiming among others at the stability of the continent and the full respect of its international borders; it should also convey the potential benefits that it is willing to offer in return for a democratic transformation of Russia;
Amendment 478 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n a (new)
(na) the EU should adopt a comprehensive list of all available instruments for engaging with democratic society in Russia, which may include proposals elaborated by many Russian civil society organisations, such as appointing a special EU representative for inter-societal cooperation with Russia;
Amendment 480 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n a (new)
(na) urges the EU and its Member States to continue and intensify the promotion of good relations with Russian citizens, particularly in key areas such as education, research, science, culture, the environment and cross-border cooperation;
Amendment 482 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n b (new)
(nb) therefore stresses the importance of intensifying dialogue with the Russian people and of strengthening political and financial support for civil society activists, human rights defenders, independent media, investigative journalists, academics and public figures and NGOs; calls on the EU Member States to contribute more -materially and technically - to this support;
Amendment 483 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n b (new)
(nb) the EU should increase substantially its financial and technical assistance to trade unions, independent media, non-government and civil society organisations and civic sector capacity building measures in Russia, including people to people contacts, and look into the facilitation of the visa issuance process;
Amendment 485 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n c (new)
(nc) suggests that the EU-Russia parliamentary delegation should take on the task of identifying persons of interest, playing a leading role in society, who would be open to the establishment of a constructive and uninterrupted dialogue and to setting up an agenda of public contacts with Russian civil society, its universities, its major scientific and cultural institutions, its non-governmental organizations, its political movements and its artistic and intellectual circles;
Amendment 487 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n c (new)
(nc) the EU should support financially humanity studies programmes in European universities, which would allow Russian people, and students in particular, to be prepared to engage in a democratic transformation of their country;
Amendment 488 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n d (new)
Amendment 491 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n e (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n e (new)
(ne) urges the EU to establish a binding legal framework enabling it to react strongly to campaigns aimed at undermining democracy or the rule of law, including through targeted action against those responsible for such campaigns;
Amendment 492 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n f (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n f (new)
(nf) is deeply concerned about the links between the Russian government and far- right parties and populist governments in the EU and must fight against aggressions to democracy;
Amendment 494 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n g (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n g (new)
(ng) stresses that money laundering and criminal financial activities perpetrated by Russian nationals constitute a threat to the security and stability of Europe;
Amendment 496 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – subheading 5
Paragraph 1 – subheading 5
Engagement to support the Russian people and democracy – Eastern Partnership success as an inspiration for the people of Russia
Amendment 498 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point n h (new)
Paragraph 1 – point n h (new)
(nh) considers that the Union should continue to support the fulfilment by Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus of the political, democratic, social and legal criterias of the Union on which the EU treaties and charters are based;
Amendment 509 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point o a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point o a (new)
(oa) the EU should express its will to improve relations between the itself and the people of the Russian Federation by the adoption and the publication of an "Address to the Russian people";
Amendment 510 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point o a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point o a (new)
(oa) the EU should push for more ambitious strategy for integration of EaP countries that have an association agreement with the EU, especially when they are showing the same level of development and integration as the Western Balkan countries; the EU in such a way will motivate the EU- associated Eastern Partnership countries to enact European inspired reforms;
Amendment 512 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point o b (new)
Paragraph 1 – point o b (new)
(ob) the EU should launch as soon as possible a new momentum of European integration, which could concentrate on Romano Prodi formula to offer EaP countries that have an association agreement with the EU an ‘everything, but the institutions’ model and give them the full benefits of EU integration, such as access to EU common policies, the opening of EU financial resources, access to EU jurisdiction, and a progressive integration into the EU institutions;
Amendment 514 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point o c (new)
Paragraph 1 – point o c (new)
(oc) the EU should propose in the forthcoming Conference on the Future of Europe an institutional reform agenda, which would allow the EU to prepare for a new momentum of European integration of the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood;