Latvians say EU presidency will not be ‘anti-Russian’

Latvia's presidency of the Council of the European Union will not be an "anti-Russian" presidency, Latvia's minister for foreign affairs said yesterday as the Baltic state kicked off its first EU presidency.

Speaking at the official launch of the presidency in the Latvian capital, Riga, Latvia's prime minister Laimdota Straujuma said competitiveness, the digital economy and EU external relations would be among the country's priorities during its six-month tenure.

Latvia is the second Baltic state to hold the council's six-month rotating presidency, following Lithuania's tenure in 2013. The former Soviet country assumes the mantle at a delicate time in EU-Russian relations, as tensions continue over Russia's incursion into Ukraine.

Yesterday, the European Commission announced a further €1.8 billion in medium-term loans for Ukraine, the third package of financial assistance provided by the EU to Ukraine since the onset of the crisis. Announcing the new financial aid yesterday, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the decision to sanction more funds showed Europe's solidarity with Ukraine, but called on the Ukrainian government to continue to implement reforms.

Minister for foreign affairs Edgars Rinkevics said the EU needed to find "a new political dialogue" over the Ukraine crisis, though he noted responsibility for foreign policy lay primarily with the EU's high representative for foreign affairs.

Political dialogue

“We definitely do not see our presidency as something that is sometimes called anti-Russian. We have our principles, but we also think that political dialogue over the situation in eastern Ukraine should continue.” Mr Rinkevics travels to

Moscow

on Monday to meet Russia’s foreign minister,

Sergei Lavrov

, and other officials ahead of a summit next Thursday in

Kazakhstan

. It is expected that Ukraine’s president,

Petro Poroshenko

; Russian president

Vladimir Putin

; German chancellor

Angela Merkel

; and French president François Hollande will attend the summit, though the attendance of the two European leaders is still uncertain.

Latvia, a country of two million which borders Russia, has a significant ethnic Russian minority. Approximately 40 per cent is Russian-speaking.

Asked if the EU would renew sanctions against Russia in March when the measures are due for review, Mr Rinkevics said it depended on progress on the Russian side.

“Our general approach is that, first of all, we think that if the situation improves in Ukraine – by that I also understand that there is controlled border between Russia and Ukraine, that there are no Russian soldiers positioned in eastern Ukraine. If this is being really implemented, we would certainly support softening some of the sanctions. But we also have to be very clear. If the situation deteriorates, we also have to be ready to use the instruments further.”

He said the EU’s sanctions imposed against Crimea should be upheld, and called for the EU to take a more active role in diplomacy with Russia, rather than leave the work of liaising with Moscow to various national capitals.

Speaking after a meeting of the College of Commissioners yesterday in Riga, EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said she was in constant contact with the French and German foreign ministers ahead of next week's summit.

She rejected suggestions of any disunity within the EU about the continuation of Russian sanctions, saying the EU was united. “There is a common European approach on where we have to go – the full implementation of the Minsk agreement and work to build on the limited or positive signs that are there in the last few weeks in the east of Ukraine.”

Ukraine and the fight against terrorism is likely to dominate the next meeting of EU foreign ministers scheduled for January 19th.