EU parliaments’ heads want more Ukraine support

The speakers of parliaments of European countries supported Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and declared the willingness to provide further humanitarian and military aid to the country at the end of the two-day Prague conference.

The parliament heads also agreed for EU countries to push for stronger independence from authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in their conclusions, Czech Senate chairman Milos Vystrcil told reporters on Tuesday.

According to Czech News Agency, the parliament’s heads also supported closer cooperation between the EU and NATO and the establishment of a tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes.

The resolution says the pressure on Russia should continue to be exerted through economic sanctions and the supply of arms and ammunition to Ukraine, and frozen Russian assets should be used to reconstruct Ukraine.

The heads of the houses of parliament expressed disappointment at China’s long-term attitude to the war in Ukraine and called on Chinese representatives not to worsen the situation on the battlefield by supplying arms to Russia.

Commenting on the efforts to eliminate dependence on authoritarian regimes, Vystrcil said it was necessary to look for resources in “like-minded countries” and use them even if totalitarian states offered cheaper alternatives. “Offering cheaper resources is nothing but buying our freedom,” he noted.

If it turns out that some strategic resources are not available elsewhere, alternatives should be considered, the Senate chairman said. He added that he considered cooperation with democratic countries in the Indo-Pacific region important in this respect.

Vystrcil described the two-day conference as a success, with 53 delegations from 40 countries in attendance. In addition to EU member states representatives from candidate countries and other countries that share the same ideas as EU member states attended the event.

(Ondřej Plevák | EURACTIV.cz)