In the face of the intensification of the Moscow offensive, the Member States of the European Union reflect on a gradual stop of imports of Russian hydrocarbons.
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The Elysée stated that “the summit’s place had been chosen before the triggering of the war”. Nevertheless, the symbol is no less noticeable. Because it is at the Palace of Versailles, the same where the heads of state and European government met Thursday 10 and Friday, March 11 to cope with the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which Emmanuel Macron had received Vladimir Putin, in Grande Pomp, May 29, 2017. At the time, the French President, just elected, hoped to relaunch a relationship with Moscow undermined by the annexation of Crimea three years earlier, the destabilization of the East of the Ukraine, then by Russian military engagement alongside Damascus.
Welcoming its European counterparts, nearly five years later, Emmanuel Macron has probably remembered these beginnings with the Russian President and has been able to measure the challenges posed by the invasion of Ukraine. Between the exchange in the corner of Ms. Victoire with the master of Kremlin and dinner with the twenty-seven in the ice gallery, the world has rocked into a new era, and the Europeans too. “This summit is very important because it arrives in full war, and we have to make strong decisions. These decisions we must take them in the days, the coming weeks,” said the head of state. The entire Thursday evening and part of the night have been devoted to the conflict and multiple questions it poses.
The stake is strategic for Europeans. While the conflict triggered by Vladimir Putin threatens to last and destabilize the whole continent, the question is how to weigh on the course of events and encourage the Russian president to accept a ceasefire, even if this perspective moves away, as Mr. Macron has recognized. At the same time, Europeans have emphasized their willingness to help the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, without, at the end of lively debates between the East and West of the continent, support his application for membership ” without delay “to the EU.
No consensus for a blockade
Like the United States, the twenty-seven do not want to go to war against Russia. Therefore, they remain, in addition to military equipment delivered to Kiev, the lever of economic sanctions. On this point, they welcome to have adopted in the emergency, in consultation with Washington, massive retaliation, whose effect is already felt on the economy and on the Russian state: the ruble has lost more than 75% of its value since February 24, JP Morgan announces a fall of 35% GDP in the second half of the year, foreign companies leave Russia one after the other, Moscow is at the edge of the default.
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