President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola on Tuesday visited Luxembourg, saying the country must play its part in the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Metsola on Tuesday met with Grand Duke Henri, prime minister Xavier Bettel (DP) and foreign affairs minister Jean Asselborn (LSAP), as well as speaking at the Chamber of Deputies during an official state visit.
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“Luxembourg has always played a leading part in championing European integration and European democracy,” Metsola said, from the grand duchy’s role in founding the European Coal and Steel Community to the signing of the Schengen agreement and beyond.
“You and your citizens believe in Europe,” the president said. Speaking 20 days into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she said Luxembourg’s “homes and hearts have been opened to people fleeing war.”
As Europe in the aftermath of WW2 pooled together precious coal and steel resources, Metsola said it is now time to rethink our resources once again and wean the EU off Russian gas, which she said funds bombs “raining down on Ukraine.”
The EU must become more self-reliant, she said, not only on energy but also food security, as well as building a stronger security and defence union. “The threat that we face are real,” Metsola said.
The European Parliament president called for bold and ambitious solutions to the crisis, adding that the EU has already passed unprecedented sanctions packages and stands united with Ukraine. “We are only as big as our ideas.”
Metsola said more aid needs to be channelled to Ukraine and support to countries that have welcomed refugees. But the president also warned that Poland and Hungary would not be exempt from rule of law obligations over their support for fleeing Ukraine.
Rule of law
Poland has taken in around 1.7 million people, with more than 255,000 received in Hungary. Both countries, however, face EU sanctions for refusing to take in refugees as part of a 2015 mechanism aimed at relocating 120,000 refugees over a period of two years.
Both countries had launched a legal challenge against a rule-of-law mechanism that give the European Commission the power to withhold funds for rule of law violations. The European Court of Justice in February dismissed the case, but the EU could now hold back off on blocking Poland and Hungary’s budget as they provide support for refugees from Ukraine.
Still, Metsola said that curbs on press freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights and other rule of law violations wouldn’t be annulled by the country’s humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine.
“We thought ourselves secure in peace. Putin’s invasion has shattered peace in Europe,” she said. “Europeans are experiencing crimes of war,” Metsola said, calling the shelling of a maternity ward and children’s hospital in the eastern city of Mariupol “an act of pure evil.”
She said the EU stands with the people of Ukraine, who have a future in the bloc, but also with those in Russia who are protesting against the war. “They are also on the right side of history.”
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