European Parliament urges EU to take lead in Ukraine peace process
The European Parliament has called on the European Union to take a leading role in shaping a future peace agreement for Ukraine, ensuring long-term security guarantees, a reparations mechanism based on frozen Russian assets, and full respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
According to an Ukrinform correspondent, a resolution on the EU position on the proposed plan and EU engagement towards a just and lasting peace for Ukraine was supported by 401 MEPs, with 70 against and 90 abstentions.
The document states that the European Parliament calls on the EU and its member states to assume much greater responsibility for security on the European continent, providing long-term military, financial, and political support to Ukraine, and strengthening its defense capabilities.
They warned that the U.S.-led peace plan initiative undermines European interests in the security architecture because it was formulated without EU participation.
"Nothing about Ukraine should be decided without Ukraine, and nothing about Europe without Europe," they said.
MEPs called on member states to adopt and implement, without further delay, a legally and financially sound "reparation loan" to Ukraine, backed by the frozen Russian assets.
They emphasized that any peace agreement must guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, include an unrestricted right to self-defense, and offer credible security guarantees "amounting to the level of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty and Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union."
Ukraine, they added, must have the "freedom to choose its security and political alliances free from any Russian veto."
The resolution also demands that any peace agreement must oblige Russia to fully compensate Ukraine for all material and immaterial harm and damage it has caused and stresses that any such agreement must guarantee full accountability under international law for the crime of aggression and the war crimes committed by Russia.
"It must also guarantee the return of all prisoners of war, civilian detainees and kidnapped Ukrainian children, as well as the withdrawal of all Russian forces from the internationally recognized territory of Ukraine," the document reads.
MEPs opposed any attempts to recognize occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian, called for a UN-mandated international peacekeeping mission along the front line, and stressed that NATO and the U.S. must maintain a presence on the eastern flank to ensure regional security.
The resolution insists that no sanctions will be lifted before a peace agreement is negotiated and implemented, and calls for the EU, in the event that Russia refuses to join serious peace talks, to impose further substantial sanctions.
Photo: minre.gov.ua