EU – Russia political relations: a draft report of the European Parliament

2024-04-19 |

In mid-2023, when the invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine was entering its second year, the European Parliament by the decision of the Conference of Presidents began the deliberation of a revised list of recommendations regarding the EU’s political relations with Russia.

Andrius Kubilius (EPP), the European Parliament standing rapporteur on Russia, has presented an initial draft in September 2023 and together with the shadow rapporteurs from major political groups began a drafting of the final report, which took into account more than 370 amendments tabled by the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET). The report also included the suggestions made by the Russian civil society organisations and democratic forces in the follow-up to the Brussels dialogue conference of 5-6 June 2023.

The negotiated draft recommendations spoke about an EU objective together with the Western community to support Ukraine’s victory against the Russian Federation’s war of aggression. The draft recommendations emphasised that the Ukrainian victory can lead to the collapse of the Kremlin regime and open the doors to sustaining the democratic transformation of Russia being essential for democracy building in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood and globally.

The draft report, as negotiated, includes four parts: 1) supporting the victory of Ukraine, 2) engaging with the Russian civil society and democratic opposition forces, 3) setting the conditions for an open political system in Russia and for the return to constructive relations, and 4) announcing of the guideline proposals for a long-term EU strategy to sustain the democratic changes in various scenarios for Russia. This report supported the judgement of Alexei Navalny that Russia can have a democratic future, for which he was murdered on Putin’s orders.

The AFET rapporteurs on Russia concluded the negotiations on the draft report and its amendments in February 2024. After that, the AFET coordinators from different political groups unexpectedly decided to ask to postpone the AFET final vote on these recommendations until the next mandate of the European Parliament.

On 9 April 2024, the Foreign Affairs Committee announced the decision of coordinators, according to which it follows that the committee will not be able to vote on the recommendations because the current term of the European Parliament will end in July 2024.

Therefore, in order to take stock of the work done for the incoming members of the house, please find enclosed the consolidated version of the report with recommendations for the EU-Russia political relations as submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee (enclosed).

Featured image: Anton Vaganov, Reuters