Debate: Russian aggression against Ukraine
Date: TUESDAY, 1 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: ES

Por eso digo que Rusia se encuentra hoy en un punto de inflexión en su trayectoria en la época postsoviética. Este tremendo conflicto solo puede concluir positivamente con un regreso de Rusia a las normas y a los principios internacionales básicos. Esta es una ocasión que, desde la Unión Europea, tenemos que aprovechar para elaborar mecanismos y tratados que establezcan garantías de seguridad más firmes y mecanismos que permitan verificar su puesta en aplicación. Quiero recordarles, después del entusiasmo de una sesión parlamentaria, que al final la vía de la negociación y el diálogo están en la esencia de lo que es la Unión Europea. No somos una Unión militar y no hemos declarado la guerra a nadie. Somos una Unión de Estados miembros que precisamente ha renunciado a la guerra como forma de resolver los conflictos. No estamos en guerra con nadie, pero estamos al lado de alguien que ha sido agredido, y dispuestos a movilizar todos nuestros recursos diplomáticos para salvaguardar la seguridad de Europa, pero también para encontrar una solución al conflicto. Porque las sanciones son necesarias, inevitables, pero, además de las sanciones, necesitamos soluciones. Estas sanciones tendrán un efecto muy grande sobre la economía rusa y el señor Putin no puede decir que no lo sabía, porque se lo hemos advertido: la presidenta Von der Leyen multitud de veces, el presidente del Consejo... Cuántas veces hemos dicho que las sanciones tendrían efectos masivos y altos costes; y sin duda los van a tener. El rublo se ha desplomado un 40 %. El control sobre casi la mitad de las reservas de cambio de Rusia tendrá un efecto enorme sobre su economía. Es una amenaza de  these unprecedented financial measures will go in the direction of a potential default, which will have consequences for the whole financial system, for the global financial system. So don’t undervalue the importance of what we have decided to do and what will follow. I want to stress that.  Now we have to work diplomatically all over the world, reaching out to all countries in order to build a state of mind in order that the aggressor is condemned. On that, I can assure you, me as the High Representative, all my colleagues, members of the Foreign Affairs Council, all our delegations, all our embassies, will be strongly working in order to get a result in the vote at the General Assembly. This is the most important thing that we have to do right now because, I repeat, this is an issue which belongs to foreign and security policy, which is intergovernmental, and it’s the Member States who have to take the lead on this response in the diplomatic sphere.  The second thing that has been discussed today, and is maybe more important than many of us could believe, is our dependency on gas. The President has been saying all the time we have to reduce this dependency, but I’ve been hearing for the last 20 years that we have to decrease this dependency and this dependency has been increasing during the last 20 years. So, from now on, let’s put our work in accordance with our saying because we paid USD 700 million before the war for gas and oil and gold imports from Russia, and every year we import 200 billion cubic meters of gas.  We have to increase renewables, the President said, have renewable hydrogen, but keep in mind that the amount of power in a country like Italy in renewables, in a year, is less than half a billion cubic meters. We have in front of us strong work to do, and we have to remain committed to it and we have to explain to our people what it means.  This is a good occasion to develop the best, most noble side of political activity, which is pedagogy. This is the moment to do pedagogy. I understand the enthusiasm and the approach of a parliamentarian Chamber in a moment like this – I have been a parliamentarian, like you, for many years and even the President of this House – and I know that this is the moment to show enthusiasm and support, but then we have to go to acts.  So next time, when you discuss again the budget of the European Union, remember that we need resources to do what today we are doing with an intergovernmental fund that this Parliament has never approved, because it’s not in its area of competence. Put more defence and security in your mind-set; stop discussing theology about strategic autonomy.  Call it the way you want, but we have to be more responsible. We have to take our responsibility more into our hands. We have to be strategically responsible – and this has nothing to do with weakening transatlantic alliances which, by the way, have proven to be stronger than ever. Our unity with the transatlantic partners has been 100% – so nothing against weakening NATO because we develop our capacities. We have to become a hard power.  I know that the words may frighten some people, but hard power, I insist, is not just talking about the military. Hard power is about having a power to coerce, the power to influence the decisions of others, and what we are doing with these measures is a lot of hard power. Be prepared for the answer. Be prepared for the consequences. Don’t put all your strength in your mouth. Don’t say nice things only.  From now on, we have to be prepared to resist. We have to be prepared to act in the long term with a clear understanding of our challenges and our capacities. This is the moment for the European Union to discuss what we want to be, what we are and what the limits are of what we can do, and what we want to do in the future. In order to face the challenge of the future, there are a lot of things that we have to review, a lot of things about our procedures, our methods, putting more attention on our capacity to act than on the time that we spend on internal discussions.  What’s happening today in Ukraine reminds me of Budapest in 1956. I was nine years old, but I remember listening to the radio about how the Russian tanks were entering Budapest. It reminds me of 1988, the Prague Spring. I was an officer in the Spanish army then and my unit was put on alert. I don’t know why, it was completely useless. On both occasions we did nothing because we couldn’t do anything.  But from now on we have to face a confrontation between us, democracies, people who believe in freedom and a multi-party system where citizens choose their governments, when we live in a free market economy and we are trying to put together economic efficiency and social cohesion, and autocratic regimes which support themselves with a clique of people who take advantage of the system, while the great majority of the people don’t improve their living conditions.  All the war treasury that Putin is taking from gas payments doesn’t go to increase the well-being of the Russian people. It goes to make his war machine more powerful.  – Tout l’argent qu’on verse pour payer le gaz et le pétrole russe ne sert pas à accroître le bien-être du peuple russe; il sert tout simplement à augmenter sa capacité militaire. Le moment est venu, je le pense vraiment et honnêtement, pour l’Europe de réfléchir sur elle-même: que voulons-nous être à l’avenir? Je pense que nous voulons être quelque chose de plus que ce que nous sommes aujourd’hui. Tel est le véritable défi auquel nous devrons faire face durant les prochaines semaines, les prochains mois et les prochaines années. C’est pour cela aussi que la conférence sur l’avenir de l’Europe joue un rôle important.