The French president stressed that the EU must combine dialogue and demandingness in its relations with Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron said at a press conference following the EU summit on Tuesday that the European Union needs to define a strategy for developing relations with Russia, which should combine dialogue and demandingness, TASS reported.
“We need to define both a short-term and a long-term strategy in relations with Russia,” Macron believes. “It should combine dialogue and demandingness”, – the French leader added.
According to him, the path to European security lies “through demanding discussions with Russia”.
“We have instructed the European Commission to prepare a report on this, which we expect to receive in June”, – Macron said. – “We must structure our relations in such a way that we can demonstrate unity in response to ongoing provocations. France is convinced that we need a profound restructuring of our relations with Russia.”
Macron stressed that the EU’s policy of sanctions against Moscow is no longer effective in addressing long-term problems.
“The policy of increasing sanctions against Russia on long-term problems is no longer effective”, – Macron said, – “We have therefore commissioned a report in June which I believe should determine what the strategy should be. We are approaching the limit of possibilities in sanctions policy.”