EP president advisor Pranckevičius: Proposal for EU to purchase Mistral ships is “original and creative”

EP Members of the European People’s Party group, Gabrielius Landsbergis (Lithuania), Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (Poland), Tunne Kelam (Estonia) and others initiated a resolution urging to impose a complete weapon sales embargo on Russia, hoping to prevent France from selling amphibious assault vessel to Russia. Landsbergis believes that EU member states should show solidarity with Ukraine as well as among themselves and acquire the ships for common EU purposes, military and humanitarian operations in the Mediterranean.

Advisor to the EP president Pranckevičius says that no concrete decision regarding this proposal has been made yet. The EP is the first institution to raise the proposal and express it in a resolution.

“Perhaps we should wait for reaction of the French Government to this and other discussions in the EU. The idea is very original and creative, and could solve this headache in such a way that both France and the EU could exit from the situation with heads held high,” Lithuanian journalists were told on Wednesday by Martin Schulz’s advisor in Brussels.

The resolution also proposes on behalf of the EU to expand and strengthen sanctions against Russia, so that they encompass financial and economic blockade. It is proposed to exclude Russia from international banking operations SWIFT system and terminate nuclear co-operation.