In the crosshairs of the former Belgian Prime Minister, “6,000 people”, elected officials, diplomats, regime officials who have “property or a bank account in the West”.
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For the former Belgian Prime Minister and MEP of the Renew group Guy Verhofstadt, the sanctions taken against Russia are insufficient: “We made a first package of sanctions, it didn’t work, then two weeks later, a new package of sanctions. We are on the 5th package of sanctions!” According to him, “we must attack the backbone of Putin’s authoritarian regime” : through this formula, he designates 6,000 people “who work in the authorities around Putin”that is to say elected officials, diplomats, officials of the regime.
Guy Verhofstadt believes that these people, who have “a property or bank account in the West”do not have the possibility of escaping the sanctions of the European Union, unlike the oligarchs “who have lawyers or such wealth that these sanctions do not affect them”. According to him, the European Union “can surely be helped by Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation which has all the data”.
Operate by packages of sanctions “does not work with an authoritarian regime”contrary to “democracies that have a public opinion”. That is why the member calls on the European Union “to be taken as soon as possible” all the necessary sanctions, “including oil and gas because we continue to finance Putin’s war machine”. This slowness in taking sanctions is linked, according to him, to the functioning of the European Union: “You always have to decide unanimously, that the 27 Member States all agree before you can do anything”. For him, the war in Ukraine is “also a lesson for in-depth reform of the European Union”.
Finally, on the fear of lack of energy, he believes that European countries have “enough gas in reserve for the moment” with 30 billion cubic meters. But he emphasizes above all that “If we want to show solidarity with the Ukrainians, we have to make sacrifices”. Guy Verhofstadt therefore suggests the creation of a European solidarity fund “to help households and industries that are going to have difficulties in the coming weeks. With a solidarity fund, Europe can make a difference”he concludes.