Irina Forden’s blog

photo © Conseil de l’Union européenne

On Monday, Sept. 1 in Brussels The Council of the European Union held an urgent meeting on the situation in Georgia.

Following a meeting members of the European Council and a current Head of the Council - French President Nicolas Sarkozy held a press conference for the journalists.

Here is a short summary of the conclusions and recommendations of The Council of the European Union.

The European Council expressed very serious concerns over the recent conflict “which has broken out in Georgia, by the resulting violence and by the disproportionate reactions of Russia.” As it is mentioned in the published document - in result of this conflict both sides have suffered a significant damage. It is not clearly explained in that paragraph of the document who are the both sides, but I assume it is - Ossetian, Georgian and Russian sides.

The European Council condemned Russia’s decision to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and once again emphasized that the European Union wants to see Georgian territorial integrity preserved.

It was also mentioned that while European Council is pleased to see that eventually ceasefire agreement between Russia and Georgia has taken effect, it was not completely followed through by the Russian side - not all Russian troops were pulled back to the positions it were held at before Aug. 7 when the initial conflict began.

President N. Sarkozy is planning to visit Moscow on Sept. 8 together with President of the European Commission Manuel Barosso and EU High Representative Javier Solana to discuss these issues directly with the Russian government.

As confirmed by the European Union (EU) officials so far there were no any sanctions to be imposed on Russia as suggested by some countries - members of the EU (among them Britain, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) in order to force Russia to completely withdraw from Georgian territory and as a means of a “drawing the line”. However there were no unity among the EC members achieved on that subject as it is suggested that countries opposing the sanctions are heavily dependent on Russian energy resources - natural gas and oil (among those are Italy, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Spain and some other countries).

I can only remind that all three Baltic states are very dependent on Russian energy resources too, however it didn’t prevent them from taking a tougher stance on the matter.

At the press conference Mr. Sarkozy, visibly upset at some point after remark that latest EU actions were so ineffective that it was compared to the “paper tiger”, mentioned that EU will continue negotiations of a ceasefire agreement (six point plan) until it completely followed through. It is not a first time EU and it’s Council were called a “paper tiger”.

It was also mentioned that the EU will “commit itself… to secure a peaceful and lasting solution to the conflict in Georgia”. EU is to supply additional, to the already provided, aid to Georgia, including regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, number is somewhere near 14 million Euro and US is already pledging about 20-25 million dollars.

EU is also planning to re-access it’s efforts to diversify “energy sources and supply routes”.

The complete statement by Council of the European Union is available at

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?lang=EN

and it is called EXTRAORDINARY EUROPEAN COUNCIL, BRUSSELS. 1 SEPTEMBER 2008. PRESIDENCY CONCLUSIONS

Important edit of the earlier info on amount of financial assistance provided by US government to Georgia -

“As of August 23, the USG has provided more than $20.7 million, including more than $3.9 million from USAID/OFDA, $2.8 million from the US Department of State, and nearly $14 million from the Department of Defense. The total value of USG emergency relief commodities, including shelter, emergency food assistance, hygiene kits, sleeping bags, and medical items, is nearly $4.7 million. Seven NGO partners, including Counterpart International, Samaritan’s Purse, CARE International, the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), World Vision, Save the Children, and Mercy Corps, have been delivering USG emergency relief commodities to populations in need. “

as released by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) on their web site

http://www.usaid.gov/

P.S. - All quotations in this post (article) are taken out of the above mentioned documents and protected by copyrights.

Photo provided by www.ue2008.fr and used here with prior written permission.

If you understand French you can watch EC press conference on line here at PFUE-TV.EU

- http://pfue-tv.ue2008.fr/ue/fo/en/

by Irina Forden