Emergency resolution of the European People’s Party in support of recognising Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism
Adopted by the EPP Political Assembly on 18 November 2022
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Whereas the war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine as from 20 February 2014, the illegal attempted annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the temporary occupation of the territories of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine starting 24 February 2022 — with recourse to land, sea and air forces and methods — clearly violate international law;
whereas the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in its 13 October 2022 resolution ’Further escalation in the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine’, recognised that Russia’s aggression must be unequivocally condemned as a crime in itself, as a violation of international law and as the main threat to international peace and security, and that Putin’s regime should be recognised as a terrorist regime; and whereas PACE called on Member States to act;
whereas the fact that the atrocities and murders of the civilian population by the armed forces of the Russian Federation in cities and villages of Ukraine were carried out with special cruelty — including the rape of children, women and men — and whereas the creation of deliberate conditions for humanitarian catastrophes in the cities and villages of Ukraine could not have happened without the approval of Russia’s top leadership, these are nothing but acts of terrorism against the Ukrainian people; whereas according to the Ukrainian Ombudsman more than 200 000 children had already been forcibly taken to Russia for adoption by Russian families; whereas the forced deportation of 11 000 Ukrainian children could be verified according to the Ukrainian National Information Bureau;
whereas the Russian Federation — by the forces of its military and illegal armed groups being under its control, in the temporarily occupied territories of certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, using prohibited weapons and taking hostages of the civilian population, including children, women, the elderly and Ukrainian paramedics, violating humanitarian corridors and forcibly relocating the Ukrainian population to Russia — not only violates the Charter of the United Nations and the principles and norms of international humanitarian law but has also indicated purely terrorist motives to destroy the Ukrainian population, such that clear grounds exist for qualifying Putin’s regime as a terrorist regime;
whereas Russia — by threatening to resort to nuclear weapons and by its seizure of Ukrainian nuclear power plants in Chernobyl and Energodar, events unprecedented in the entire history of humankind — not only poses a threat to Ukraine and to Europe but also undermines the non-proliferation regime of nuclear weapons at the global level and contradicts the obligations of the Russian Federation in accordance with the Memorandum on Security Guarantees in Connection with Ukraine’s Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Budapest Memorandum), dated 5 December 1994;
whereas the continued use of long-range artillery, cruise missiles and drones by the Russian military to hit towns and cities across Ukraine has already caused massive destruction and death; whereas the Putin regime’s missile and drone terror, of which the most dramatic manifestation took place on 15 November 2022, when about 100 Russian missiles targeted 15 Ukrainian regions, hitting critical infrastructure and residential buildings; and whereas no argument could justify this indiscriminate and conscious terror against Ukraine and the Ukrainian people other than terrorist activity;
The European People’s Party Political Assembly:
Strongly condemns the ongoing war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine; calls on the European Union, in coordination with G7 nations as well as NATO, to do everything possible in order to achieve Russia’s defeat in its unprovoked and brutal aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s full restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, within its internationally recognised borders, including Crimea;
Reiterates its unwavering support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, within its internationally recognised borders; strongly condemns the attempted illegal annexation by Russia of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and calls on Russia to revoke these unlawful decisions;
Calls on the European Union, NATO and their respective Member States, as well as on G7 nations, to strengthen military assistance to Ukraine: including, at the earliest possible, the consolidation of Ukraine’s air defence, by providing modern anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, as well as jet fighters; by boosting Ukraine’s counteroffensive capabilities by providing modern tanks, long-range artillery and MLRS systems; and by the intensification of training for Ukrainian soldiers;
Calls on the European Union to ensure the further increase of political, military, economic, financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine: including by the adoption of a new €18-billion EU aid package for Ukraine for 2023; by establishing a Marshall-like Plan for Ukraine’s reconstruction; by supporting the implementation of the grain export initiative; and by continuing the humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees;
Underlines the importance of moving forward, at national and European levels and engaging all stakeholders, and starting accession negotiations with Ukraine as soon as possible;
In the context of Russia’s barbaric missile attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which resulted in the destruction of about 40% of Ukraine’s electricity-generation capacities, with a harsh wintertime approaching, calls on the EU and its Member States to supply Ukraine with additional electricity-generation sources, including repairs to damaged power stations, in order to overcome the negative consequences of these Russian attacks;
Calls on the European Union, in coordination with transatlantic allies and like-minded international partners, to further explore all possibilities for strengthening the regime of sectoral and individual sanctions against Russia and its allies: to maximise the effectiveness of these sanctions and to counter any attempts to circumvent them; further calls for a focus on the restrictive measures on Russia’s energy fields, with a view to ensuring a drastic decrease in Russia’s income and in Russia’s budget for supporting its ongoing aggression against Ukraine; calls for continued exploration of the possibility of confiscating Russian high officials’ and regime-related oligarchs’ property and assets;
Supports the initiative of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to reconsider the EU’s common policy towards Russia, while taking full account of Russia’s aggressive expansionist policies aimed at undermining the European Union, transatlantic unity and our common democratic values and principles;
Supports efforts to ensuring a comprehensive system of accountability for serious violations of international law arising from the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine, actively co-operating with the Ukrainian authorities on this issue; in this context, is also strongly of the opinion that the establishment of a Special (ad hoc) International Tribunal to prosecute Russia's leadership and its allies — in particular the Lukashenka regime in Belarus and the Iranian regime — for their crimes of aggression against Ukraine must be sped up;
Calls for declaring Putin’s regime a terrorist regime.
The EPP Manifesto, also adopted at the 2012 EPP Congress in Bucharest, outlines the basic principles of the Party summary.
The EPP Manifesto, also adopted at the 2012 EPP Congress in Bucharest, outlines the basic principles of the Party summarising who we are, what our values are, what challenges are we facing and what vision we have for the future. The Manifesto was developed in parallel to the EPP Platform document within the EPP Working Group 1 for “European Policy”.
The EPP Platform is the core programme of our party outlining our main values, explaining the challenges our society is facing and presenting our vision for the future of European Union.
The Party Platform was developed in EPP Working Group 1 for “European Policy” chaired by EPP President Wilfried MARTENS ?and EPP Vice President Peter HINTZE. The Working Group consists of delegates of EPP member parties who prepared and worked?on this document for more than two years and received input?from the drafting committee as well as senior and young experts. The document was adopted at the 2012 EPP Congress in Bucharest, thus replacing the Basic Programme of Athens from 1992.
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