The European People’s Party (EPP), Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the Greens, Renew, and the Left collectively voted in support of von der Leyen, although not every MEP was present. Some members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) also voted against the motion. Patriots for Europe (PfE) and Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) voted in favour of the motion. Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar, an MEP from the Respect and Freedom (Tisza) party affiliated with the EPP, abstained, while two of Tisza’s MEPs voted in support of von der Leyen. Meanwhile, ten out of eleven MEPs from the Hungarian governing coalition Fidesz–KDNP voted against the president, with one abstention.

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Source: https://www.hungarianconservative.com/articles/current/von-der-leyen-no-confidence-vote-ep/

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The vote came after a series of speeches during which the majority of countries called on Russia to end the violence in Ukraine, which has continued for nearly one week.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.N., urged countries to vote in favor of the resolution in an emotional address that ended with applause from the chamber.

“It’s already clear that the goal of Russia is not an occupation only. It is genocide,” Kyslytsya said.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the U.N., asked members to vote against the resolution and said Western powers were exerting pressure on other countries to vote in favor of it. Belarus and Syria were among the countries that spoke out against the resolution.

There was widespread international support for the resolution
Ultimately, the resolution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 141-5 with 35 abstentions. The five countries that voted against it were Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.

“The truth is that this war was one man’s choice and one man alone: President Putin. It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country,” said U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

“Those were President Putin’s choices. Now it is time to make ours. The United States is choosing to stand with the Ukrainian people,” she added.

The measure’s passage showed that “a global anti-Putin coalition has been formed and is functioning,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a tweet after the vote.

“The world is with us. The truth is on our side. Victory will be ours!” Zelenskyy added.

Russia’s invasion has continued despite diplomatic pressure
The vote came amid multiple efforts to wall off Russia diplomatically, a surge in the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine, an initial estimate that the humanitarian effort within the country will cost more than $1 billion, and an emergency, often heated debate at the General Assembly. None of the diplomatic activities appeared to slow Russia’s attacks Wednesday morning, as new reports said Russian airstrikes had hit a regional police headquarters in Kharkiv, injuring three people.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, singling out Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in her speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, said the war was based on lies.

“Mr. Lavrov, you can deceive yourself, but you won’t deceive us. And you won’t deceive our people and you won’t deceive your own people,” she said.

Russian diplomats, including Nebenzia, have called the attacks against Ukraine a “special military operation” intended to defend two separatist regions.

“Russia is seeking to end this war,” Nebenzia said earlier this week.

The resolution “demands that the Russian Federation immediately, completely, and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders.” It also expresses “grave concern at reports of attacks on civilian facilities such as residences, schools, and hospitals, and of civilian casualties, including women, older persons, persons with disabilities, and children.”

Last week, Russia vetoed a similar resolution at the 15-member Security Council. It was mostly isolated: No other nation opposed it, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained. Eleven nations, including the United States, supported it.

“No state should be able to get away with what Russia got away with without facing diplomatic isolation,” Samuel Charap, a political scientist at the Rand Corp. said. “The question is, does it alter the course of the war, really? And there, it doesn’t seem likely.”

The United Arab Emirates assumed the rotating chair of the Security Council on Tuesday, and Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s permanent representative to the U.N., became president of the Security Council on Monday. She said Monday that the UAE’s abstention from the Security Council’s resolution would not affect how it chairs the panel.

“We must leave space for a diplomatic off-ramp,” she said. “Those countries that did abstain have those channels with President Putin and will use them to help.”

She did not say whether the UAE would abstain from Wednesday’s General Assembly vote. The United Arab Emirates did not co-sponsor the resolution.

Leaders say the war in Ukraine is creating a humanitarian crisis
Separately, the United Nations said on Tuesday it estimates the initial humanitarian and refugee needs will cost $1.7 billion. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said humanitarian agencies need $1.1 billion to fund emergency relief within Ukraine for the next three months. He also requested another $551 million to help pay for services for Ukrainians fleeing the country, especially in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova.

The money, he said, would help people access health supplies, safe drinking water, shelter and protection.

“The most effective humanitarian relief is to silence the guns,” he said.

An estimated 650,000 people have fled Ukraine and entered European Union countries since Russia invaded last week. The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to allow them to stay for up to two years under a “temporary protection directive.” If approved by EU member states, Ukrainians would be allowed to work and children would be allowed to attend school within the entire EU.

“All those fleeing Putin’s bombs are welcome in Europe,” said EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/03/02/1083872077/u-n-set-to-hold-vote-that-would-demand-russia-end-war-in-ukraine

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EU leaders agreed Friday to plan for sanctions against Russia but rejected a push for a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the EU summit in Brussels, France and Germany had called for direct talks with Putin.

The proposal came after US President Joe Biden held his own meeting with Putin in Geneva, Switzerland, last week.

However, EU leaders failed to reach an agreement on such a summit. In a statement, they said that “they will explore format and conditionalities of dialogue with Russia” but did not mention a summit.

The statement also called on EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell “to present options for additional restrictive measures, including sanctions” against Russia.

“We defined again under what conditions we are prepared to work and communicate more closely with Russia… There was no agreement today on an immediate leaders’ meeting,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting EU leaders.

Prime Minister Andrej Babis’ Czech Republic has been named, along with the US, as an ‘Unfriendly State’ by Russia

What did Merkel and Macron say about a Putin summit?

Merkel said the 27-member bloc needed direct dialogue with Russia because “conflicts can best be solved if you also talk to each other.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said warmer ties with Moscow were “necessary for the stability of the European continent.”

“We cannot remain in a purely reactive logic with regards to Russia,” he said.

The bloc has not held a summit with the Russian leader since 2014 amid an ongoing rift over the annexation of Crimea

What is the state of EU-Russia relations?

European-Russian ties have also been strained over the poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who is currently imprisoned in a penal colony.

But the suggestion of closer ties with Putin has already created splits in the EU and came as a surprise to some EU governments. Two senior diplomats told DW that they first learned of the plan from the media.

Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said there would be “difficulties” in seeking to build trust with the Russian government.

“The Kremlin understands power politics. The Kremlin does not understand free concessions as a sign of strength,” Karins told journalists.

The EU and Moscow have traded blows over the jailing of Alexei Navalny

Lithuania, another Baltic state, was also cool on the idea floated by Paris and Berlin.

“If without any positive changes in the behavior of Russia, we will start to engage, it will send very uncertain and bad signals to our partners,” the country’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, said.

“It seems to me like we try to engage a bear to keep a pot of honey safe,” he added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he would boycott any direct EU meeting with Putin, citing the downing of the MH17 flight over Ukraine in July 2014.

Nearly 300 people died in the disaster, most of them Dutch citizens. A Dutch investigation blamed pro-Russian separatists for shooting down the plane.

EU to continue migration support for Turkey

Merkel also said EU leaders agreed to provide Turkey with around €3 billion ($3.6 billion) in financial aid to stem migration.

Turkey had agreed to keep migrants from reaching the EU in 2016 in exchange for financial aid from the bloc.

Turkey currently shelters 3.7 million migrants from the war in Syria.

Merkel said earlier in the week that the financial humanitarian aid given to Ankara should be shifted to socio-economic assistance, as some of the migrants in Turkey have been there for 10 years.

Hungary under fire over LGBTQ draft law

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government came under fire over legislation that banned LGBTQ content from being handed out in schools.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen this week branded the bill “a shame” that contradicts the fundamental values of the European Union and threatened to take Hungary to court.

Merkel said the EU leaders and Orban had a “very, very frank discussion.”

“We all made it very clear here what fundamental values we are pursuing” and the European Commission “will now continue to deal with the Hungarian law.”

Orban, however, remained unrepentant.

“This is not against homosexuality, any sexual interference. It’s not about homosexuals,” he said. “It’s about the right of the kids and the parents.”

Orban vowed not to withdraw the legislation.

“For me, Hungary has no place in the EU anymore,” Dutch Prime Minister Rutte said ahead of the meeting.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said the bill broke “a fundamental value of the European Union” while Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel called it “unacceptable.”

Leaders from 17 EU countries on Thursday signed a letter slamming “threats against fundamental rights, and in particular the principle of non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.”

The issue has been front and center of European politics this week after UEFA, Europe’s football governing body, rejected a plan by Munich to light up its stadium in rainbow colors for a Germany-Hungary match on Wednesday.

Orban had been set to attend, but he decided to skip the game that ended in a 2-2 draw and saw Hungary eliminated from the European Championship.

jf, wd/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/eu-leaders-fail-to-agree-on-a-summit-with-vladimir-putin/a-58037408

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