Facing Moscow, “the sanctions are not about to be lifted, the time is for determination, not for appeasement“. These very firm words from Ursula von der Leyen, Wednesday, September 14 during her annual speech to the European Parliament, provoke a sigh from Thierry Mariani, elected National Rally. “Firmness is inversely proportional to the result”, he criticizes, echoing Jordan Bardella. During the almost three-hour parliamentary debate that followed the speech, the latter directly attacked the President of the European Commission. “It is first and foremost your successive mistakes that we are paying for today. You wanted to ‘collapse the Russian economy’. You offered it an unexpected financial windfall by multiplying its hydrocarbon revenues”, accused MEP RN. Thierry Mariani, exasperated, does not say anything else. “For the moment, we are taking sanctions and we have no results.he summarizes. We find ourselves in a situation where we do not know where we are going!”
>> War in Ukraine, energy crisis, super-profits… What to remember from Ursula von der Leyen’s “State of the Union speech”
On the contrary, the recent military successes claimed by kyiv encourage us to further increase aid to Ukraine, believes Yannick Jadot, an environmentalist MEP. “What is essential is support for the Ukrainian resistanceinsists the ex-ecologist presidential candidate. Including military support that allows us to see the conflict evolve differently today.” Strengthened by Western arms deliveries, Ukraine has recovered, thanks to a counter-offensive, almost the entire Kharkiv region, bordering Russia, and obtained more modest territorial gains in the south, where it continues to hit bridges used by Russian forces.
We must even go further, believes Estonian parliamentarian Marina Kaljurand, member of the Socialist Group. She calls for an embargo on Russian gas. “We need to impose an embargo on all energy imports from Russia. We haven’t done it entirely so far. I would like Ursula Von der Leyen to put more pressure on member states on this. In any case, it will have the support of Parliament.” Today, according to the European Commission, Russian gas represents 9% of European imports, compared to 40% before the war.
Ursula von der Leyen arrived Thursday, September 15 in kyiv for her third visit to Ukraine since the start of the war. In particular, she will hold talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys on how to “bringing our economies and our populations closer together”.