MEPs look back at a year marked by Russia’s assault on Ukraine and set out what the EU must do in support of Kyiv. Russia began its full-scale military invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Since then, the EU and its international allies have rallied firmly behind the Kyiv government. This support has resulted in unprecedented levels of financial aid, assistance, weapons deliveries to Ukraine, sweeping sanctions against Moscow, and the granting of EU candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova. Opening statements by Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of a stronger Europe in the World and by Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

EU - Ukraine (T)

statement

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

EU - Russia (T)

troubles in Ukraine (T)

BORRELL FONTELLES, Josep (PSE, ES, EC)

VON DER LEYEN, Ursula (DE, EC)

solidarity with Ukraine (T)

Key debate - One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine: opening statements by Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, HR/VP of the European Commission and Ursula von der LEYEN, President of the European Commission

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - I would like to use these first few minutes to pay tribute to a president of the European Parliament, Mr. Gil Robles, who passed away a few days ago, a staunch pro-European, and he very much contributed to the European project.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - Ladies and gentlemen, today I speak behalf on of the Council of the European Union in its general Foreign affairs and defence formation. I am at the helm, so I am speaking from the point of view of government, the inter-governmental perspective, and that's one of the pillars that underpins the EU. And after that the President of the European Commission will be giving the community point of view. So I'm going to try to make sure that I don't say the same thing twice, but as I as High Representative for Foreign and security policy, we are interested in the measures taken by Member States and then of course the Commission's foreign policy.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - So we have a dual function. We've got external policy and security and defence which aren't the same, even though one follows on from the other very often. And the war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of the common defence and security policy. So it's been a wakeup call for Europe, a geopolitical wake up call. And as Chancellor Schulz said a few days after the invasion, this has been and I'm going to mangle this probably in German, this has been a shaping wind. So this hasn't just been for Germany, but it's been for the whole of Europe. A wake up call before a new reality, a new reality for us, which was war. And it is something that wasn't on our intellectual horizon because we had ...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - So this has really sounded the alarm bells because it ushers us into a new world, because everything has become a geopolitical debate and the European Union has responded in a way which is up to you to judge and debate today. I hope that this debate will be used for this in order to highlight what we've done. You're aware of what we've done. I'm not going to reiterate this. So the representatives of the peoples of Europe have to judge it. What else could we have done? What have we achieved? We have supported Ukraine militarily, economically, financially, diplomatically, as much as we have been able to. We have done a lot. But in my opinion, it hasn't been enough. I visited Ukraine recently with the president of the Commission and Commissioners attending the Ukraine EU summit and once again, I've seen people that are defending their freedom and independence and leaders that are trying to deal with this dramatic situation by taking the European path. President Zelenskyy said it here only a few da...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - It may be that the road is long because the war is long, but we have to do everything we can to make sure that this promise becomes a reality. We want Ukraine to win the war and then, I mean, it belongs to the European family anyway. But we hope that we'll find in Europe the future that it needs. Now, the reality on the ground is extremely worrying at the moment. More than 360,000 Russian soldiers are there, twice as many as before the war. And the Russian counter offensive has begun, even if on a small scale. And for the first time Ukraine doesn't have the advantage, the edge by having more troops on the ground. So Ukraine has appealed to the EU member states and all those who help Ukraine. And yesterday we met in the Rammstein group, all those countries that coordinate military aid to Ukraine in order to take stock of the situation to see what we've do...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - Now, I will say that I like war as little as you do. I'm not a war mongering individual. I really do not like war. Of course, I prefer peace as almost everyone or everyone. There's no point in reiterating this. But what we have to discuss is how to achieve peace and to achieve peace, we have to continue supporting Ukraine militarily more than we have done so. And this is going to be one of my key messages. Now, to achieve peace, you need to win the war and you can help Ukraine militarily. And at the same time, in parallel, make all the diplomatic efforts necessary to ensure that peace comes as quickly as possible. These aren't alternatives. They're not contradictory. We have to do both things in parallel.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - We have to provide more support and step up our diplomatic efforts. And very soon, I'll be able to see this before the U.N. and ask the secretary general to start if he wants a mediation process. Everyone has failed. Up to now, whoever has spoken to Putin has come back with a message that he wants to continue this war until he achieves his military goals. It would be ingenuous to ask for us to stop providing military assistance so that the war can last less time and that peace will come about. And I'm saying I'm using the word ingenuous not to use a stronger word now because I think if we do that, the peace that we will achieve will be a Russian victory, and that will constitute a huge threat to our security.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - So what have we done? What has the council done? I represent the council here today. First of all, it has adopted an impressive package of sanctions of Act nine, and the 10th is on the way. I'm sure that the president of the European Commission will refer to it now. The aim is to weaken the Russian economy, and we have achieved this. Many say that sanctions are inefficient and that they haven't dealt a blow to the Russian economy. And that's on the contrary, they have caused problems here in Europe. It's true that the Russian economy hasn't collapsed and that GDP growth isn't what has been forecast. And it's true that last year it got extraordinarily high revenues that came from oil and gas. But the situation is turning thanks to our sanctions and thanks to the oil price cap.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - If you look at the three key parameters of an economy, it's oil and gas revenue and the Russian finance minister said a few days ago that in January there are 46% lower than last year. So, yes, they raked in a lot in 2022 because prices hiked, they soared and we still depended on them, but we no longer depend on them. One of our great successes has been to reduce our extraordinary dependence, energy dependence on Russia to almost zero. No. So 46% less January to January. And if you look at the public deficit, it's 40 times 40 times higher in January 20, 23 compared to January 2022, 14 times. So from 2 billion to 1.8 trillion. And if you look at the trade balance, you'll see that yes, they had a huge surplus in 2022 because of a bumper wheat crop. But in January 2023, it's at a record low, at a historic low since 2007. S...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - Their plane and car plants have lost 80% of their capacity to. Yes, the ruble is strong artificially, but the Russian economy is going to pay a very high price for this war. They have lost their main energy client, the Europeans, and they will not get them again. And it's not going to be easy. It's going to be almost impossible to find an alternative client for Russian gas because China is too far and oil is being sold at $40 a barrel. In other words, half the Brent crude oil price, India and China buy it at this lower price. And that is also because of the impact of our price cap, which is a huge political success because it has greatly slashed the Russian revenue, but not it had a negative impact on the world market. So our measures are having an effect. It's happening slowly but surely, but they are undermining the industry to an energy bedro...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - The second thing the Council did, apart from adopting these package of sanctions put forward by the High Representative and the president of the Commission, working hand-in-hand and let me thank the president of the Commission for her leadership and energy. We have also provided weapons to Ukraine. Yes, for the first time, the EU hasn't used resources from its budget, but has used resources from the member states in order to arm a country in war at war. And if you put the European Peace Facility amount together with what member States have done bilaterally, we're talking about a total of €12 billion and the total amount of assistance is 60 billion. No one has done more than Europe to help Ukraine in financial and economic terms and our military aid might be less than the U.S., but it is not a negligible amount.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - Yesterday at Ramstein, I said something which I would like to repeat here. Not only do we have to continue the assistance we provide, but we've got to step it up. And I would like to put forward a plea to those countries that have modern and efficient battle tanks and that are just gathering dust in their in their deports and aren't being used to give them to Ukraine and to provide them to Ukraine as quickly as possible, because this spring and upcoming summer are going to be decisive. The war will be decided in the spring and summer. And we have spent too much time discussing whether we were going to provide the famous leopard tanks while Russia was preparing its offensive. We've spent too much time discussing decisions that should have been taken before. We were fearful that getting involved in the war would...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - But time is crucial and time is measured in lives lost. So it's extremely important to focus on the European Peace Facility and to coordinate the work done by the member states and to ask for more and more aid to be provided more quickly. This is the key message I want to put across this morning. But let me reiterate the idea that this military assistance is not contradictory to seeking peace diplomatically. It doesn't fly in the face of that. One can go in parallel with the other. I do not understand those who say that to negotiate, we have got to stop providing military assistance to Ukraine. On the contrary, both have to be done together.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - This isn't a debate between doves and hawks. This is based on realism, knowing the reality on the ground and what we have to and must do. And this is also so an alarm bell. Europe has to understand that we need higher defence capability than we have a defence industry. It has to be stronger. The ability of our armies to deal with this kind of situation has to be greater because we've seen that it's fallen short of what was necessary. This war is going to be long and we've got to tackle this based on the conviction that a war of attrition not is a logistical battle, it's a battle of logistics. It's a battle of information, because if you you look at those who are in Sahel, we're talking about the same groups in Ukraine, the Wag...

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Josep BORRELL FONTELLES, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the EC in charge of a stronger Europe in the World, - Ladies and gentlemen, honourable members. We've got to convince Europeans that we can not flag that war comes at a cost. But freedom come has to. We have to pay the price for freedom as well. And the price that we're paying is small compared to what others are paying. Putin cannot win this war. Ukraine has to win this war in order to build stable peace in Europe. Thank you.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - Thank you very much. Madam President, my dear Joseph, Honourable Members. It is now almost a year ago, on the night of February 24th, that Russia invaded Ukraine and war was back to Europe that night. I think all of you remember that. Our thoughts and I think also our prayers went to our friends in Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - I remember vividly how we followed the news from the Donbas and live with unbearable tension. And we all were wondering whether the Ukrainian friends would be able to withstand the onslaught of the Russian invaders. Today we know. Yes, they would. One year on, Putin's perfidious plans continue to be foiled by the brave Ukrainian nation. One year on, Russia has completely alienated itself from Europe. Its most important economic relationship, and is isolated on the global stage.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - One year on this very parliament last week welcomed the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a true hero. He is. And one year on Putin's imperialist fantasies have woken up to a bleak reality. While Ukraine's dreams of freedom are stronger than ever and they will prevail, I am deeply convinced.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - Honourable Members, what a difference one year of unity and resolve can make. In the early hours of February 24th, when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, a whole continent was holding its breath. Some predicted that Ukraine would fall in a matter of days, but instead the legendary bravery of the Ukrainian people stunned the world. Their fierce resistance at the gates of Kiev, the civilians who stopped Russian tanks in the south, the counteroffensive of Ukraine's armed forces in Kharkiv and Kerson. We can never match the sacrifices and the bravery of the Ukrainian people.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - But what we can do is stand firmly by their side. And that's what we've done from day one on. And we will continue to do that. They can rely on us and indeed, a whole continent has mobilised from the volunteers of the station. You remember, who welcomed the Ukrainians fleeing Putin's bombs basically to all citizens and companies who have cut their electricity demands. Together with you honourable members, we have focussed on three main goals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - First, to support Ukraine's resistance against the invader, invader and unwaveringly. Second, to undermine Russia's war machine. And thirdly, to build Ukraine's European future together. And these three strands of action have guided us over the last year and will continue to guide us in the months to come.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC Not what I would like to express our steadfast support to Ukrainian resistance. Since the start of the war, we've provided economic, humanitarian and military support to the tune of €67 billion. We have the budgetary support for military capacity, humanitarian aid, aid to Ukrainian refugees. All this is a tangible contribute portion to Ukraine's war effort. Putin wanted to see the Ukrainian state collapse. We have helped Ukraine to remain operational even in its darkest hour. Europe breathed impetus into Ukrainian resistance and we will continue to support it. We guarantee a constant flow of financial aid.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC The first part of the package, the 18 billion, has already been disbursed to Ukraine. We will continue to provide steadfast, predictable support every month. That is what Europe promised and we have honoured our pledge. Europe also supports Ukrainian companies and workers who continue to work despite the war. We are using the single market. To that end, we have integrated markets, twinned towns and offered our electricity networks, ensured solidarity corridors so that Ukraine can export its goods around the world.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC That represents 20 billion in revenue for Ukrainian companies during this period of war. And we can do more. When we visited Kiev, we agreed on a road map to further improve Ukraine's access to our single market. Putin wanted to kill off Ukraine's Europe European dream. Now Ukraine is moving far more swiftly and resolutely towards Europe. At the same time, we are weakening Russia's ability to keep its war machinery in place. We have adopted nine packages of sanctions. The Russian economy is shrinking. We need to keep up the pressure. And we are suggesting a 10th tranche of sanctions with trade bans and new checks on exports to Russia, exports of technology. We are talking about €11 billion. We are suggesting restrictions on some dozen electronic components used in Russian systems such as drones, missiles and helicopters.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC There are also hundreds of drones manufactured in Iran, used by Russia in the battlefields in Ukraine. These Iranian drones kill Ukrainian civilians and it is appalling. And so for the first time, we are also suggest sanctions targeting Iranian economic operators, including those linked to the Revolutionary Guard. It is our duty to do that, to sanction such behaviour. Putin is assuming that our support for Ukraine will not last the course. He thinks will be easy to blackmail Europe, because at the time, at the start of the war we were heavily dependent on Russian oil and gas. But he got that one wrong. One year on, from the start of the war, he has lost the energy war that he himself triggered. We have adapted turn to reliable partners and we can see the results.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC Russia's revenue from sale of oil and gas in particular, gas to Europe has dropped by two thirds. We have introduced a global oil price break or cap, and that has loss led to losses each day of 160 million for Russia. Gas prices in Europe are currently lower than before Russia invaded Ukraine. In Europe, we are now investing in clean energy and energy independence. We are looking at renewable energy sources and breaking records. Wind, solar, energy, for example. Last year we generated more energy and electricity through wind and solar than through gas. We showed resolute face, a smart, savvy policies. And so in Europe, we resisted Russian blackmail and pressure and have ensured greater energy independence. Our economies are doing better. We have been able to correct our growth forecasts upwards. However, Kremlin has had to sell off gold reserves to plug the gaps caused by dropping fossil fuel revenue.

SOUNDBITE (French), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC Ladies and gentlemen, Putin's attempt to blackmail us has been a staggering failure. And that is good news. Ladies and gentlemen, honourable members. President Zelensky has often discussed this with me. He has talked about how people in Ukraine deal with and cope with the horrors of war. Despite what happened in the open and butcher what provides them with hope, after seeing Mariupol and other cities bombed. So what gives them hope? It is that firm belief that the future of their country, the future of their children lies with the European Union. That is our third task. We want to offer the Ukrainians a bridge towards hope to move from the horrors of war towards a better, brighter future in our midst and its progress on the path towards our union go hand in hand. You've heard it from President Zelensky in this very hemicycle.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ursula VON DER LEYEN, President of the EC, - I've seen it with my colleagues. My college in Kiev. I know it from the colleagues at the commission that they confirm it every single day. Ukrainians are making tangible progress despite the war, despite fighting the aggressor. They know that the accession to our union is a merit based process. They have passed legislative reforms that thought would take years. They are making this progress because they are striving for Europe with all their heart and soul. Ukraine is a nation defined not only by its history and heritage. It is a nation defined by its dreams. And Europe is one of these dreams. So distinguished members, let us honour these dreams by standing up for Ukraine for as long as it takes so that one day the representatives of the Ukrainian people will have their place in this very hemicycle. Long live Europe. Slava Ukraini.