Debate: Debate with the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas - The EU's role in a changing world and the security situation of Europe following the Russian aggression and invasion of Ukraine
Date: WEDNESDAY, 9 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Kaja Kallas
Language: EN

First of all, we have been very united during this as the EU, also with our transatlantic partners, and we should keep it this way. It’s going to be tougher because Putin wants to see us divided. Let’s not give them this pleasure. Let’s stay united. I think that’s very important.  Second, there were some calls for making agreements regarding the security architecture. The problem is that the goal of Putin, or Russia, is to get those agreements because he knows that one of the values of the European Union is that we respect agreements –  There was also somebody who said here that expanding NATO, taking new members into NATO, would be provoking Russia. Well, it’s not provoking Russia. Every country has the right to decide in which union or alliance it wants to be. It’s not up to any other country to say that you can’t be there. And I remind you, NATO is a defence alliance. It’s not attacking anybody. It’s meant to be there for defending the countries that are in this alliance. And from what we see right now, it’s very much necessary. So we shouldn’t fall into that trap.  Regarding the sanctions, I think we should also think about how one side is seizing assets, but the other side is also confiscating assets, so that we can use the means from those assets to build up Ukraine. And therefore, if this signal goes out, then it also means for every bullet that they fire, for every building that they destroy, they’re going to pay for this. They’re going to build this from their own money. It’s coming from their pockets. I think it has to be very clear regarding this. On energy, we have to understand that it’s going to hurt. And of course, Ukrainians are suffering now, and I do agree with those who have said that we shouldn’t finance the war machine of Putin, but we also have to understand that some of the countries in Europe are 100% dependent on Russian gas – Bulgaria, for example. If we don’t have alternatives, it’s going to hurt them a lot and maybe so much that there is not going to be unity within Europe. We have to see what the alternatives are, how we can help those countries so that it wouldn’t be so hard on their populations. Some Members said that we, the EU, have emerged stronger from the crisis and I do agree with this. We have built on the lessons that we learned from the debt crisis, which enabled us to be better in the health crisis. We had all the funds ready to react to a possible economic fall. But now we also have to use the lessons learned from previous crises to be stronger and I do agree we are stronger here as well.  And the last point – no, one more point before the last point – and that is that the representative of the EPP Group from France said that the defence clause for Article 42(7) (TEU) has never been used, but actually, that is not correct. It has been used once – and it was for France – because of the Bataclan crisis, so I just wanted to correct that. And if some countries who are not members of NATO, like Finland and Sweden, need this article to be in force right now to feel more secure, then we should agree on this. I think we are not giving anything away.  And the last point is about the Ukrainian perspective to join Europe. I think what the Ukrainians need right now is hope. They are literally fighting for Europe in Ukraine, and the least we can do is give them this hope and say that ‘yes, you are part of Europe; you are welcome in our family’.