The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ioannis Kasoulides, participated
yesterday in the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU, held in Luxembourg.
The main topic for discussion during the Council session was the
continued crisis in Ukraine. In his intervention, Minister Kasoulides underlined
that everyone should focus on the diplomatic efforts that are underway so as to
create the necessary conditions for a substantial de-escalation of the crisis.
An important ‘weapon’ that we have for the attainment of this goal, he added, is
the meeting in Geneva with the participation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs
of the USA, Russia and Ukraine and the High Representative of the EU. That is
where our efforts, as EU, should focus, he noted.
Moreover, Mr Kasoulides said that the imposition of sanctions should
not be considered an end in itself but the means leading all the interested
parties towards the direction of the diplomatic route. As regards the moving
into the next phase of restrictive measures, the Minister of Foreign Affairs
reminded that this could not be made automatically and without the previous
relevant decision of the EU ‘28’. He also noted that Cyprus considers as a
precondition for such a possibility the carrying out of an impact study by the
relevant EU bodies, both for the Union as a whole and for each member state
separately, and that it will insist upon substantial countervailing
measures.
The EU Foreign Ministers also discussed the situation in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and the crisis in Syria.
