Activities of Andrius KUBILIUS related to 2021/2042(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Direction of EU-Russia political relations (debate)
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 (87)
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 162 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas the EU must promote democracy and its principles globally at the same level of priorities, as it does with a global fight against climate change or nuclear disarmament;
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 384 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point g d (new)
Paragraph 1 – point g d (new)
Amendment 401 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 – point h a (new)
Paragraph 1 – point h a (new)
(ha) the EU should replace the unanimity requirement for imposing sanctions in the EU Council with the qualified majority voting;
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 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 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 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 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 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;