Talking Europe hosts one the EU's most hawkish voices on Russia, Urmas Paet, who was Estonia’s foreign minister from 2005 to 2014. He is now an MEP and vice-president of the foreign affairs committee in the European Parliament. Paet outlines his hopes for a stronger EU defence capability and for more transparency on frozen Russian assets, as well as accountability for alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Asked about the pushback by some EU countries against the European Commission's proposals to map Russian assets, he says: "I guess the reasons are more political than technical. I don’t understand why there are some governments and countries in Europe that are still sceptical. I hope that in the very near future we can at least get data from each member state on what kind of Russian assets have been frozen."
Asked how the frozen assets might be used, Paet says: "I really urge politicians in member states and also officials in the EU Commission to work very hard to lay down a legal framework. The damage in Ukraine is more than €7 billion. I can't imagine that Russia will get all its frozen money back, and that EU taxpayers end up having to pay for rebuilding Ukraine while the aggressor country does nothing."
On the broader issue of accountability, Paet states: "I don't see an alternative to a special tribunal. We have to start building an international coalition. More than 50,000 war crimes have been registered already. Normal countries cannot just let this go. We have to build a coalition and convince third countries to join it. If you look at the existing sanctions, there are countries that joined the sanctions that are not EU or NATO members. And there are many countries in the world that are very much worried about what is happening and they don't like a situation where international law has no role to play anymore."
Paet has long been an advocate of a more integrated EU defence policy. So has the war in Ukraine prompted the EU to push in that direction? "Things are still moving slowly, unfortunately," he answers. "Of course there is lots more understanding after one year of Russian aggression against Ukraine. But still, when we speak about the self-defence capability of Europe, we still have a lot to do, and we don't have the level of political consensus in the European Union. Of course NATO is very important for European security, but we very much need added value for European defence and security, and we can get all that added value from the European Union," he adds.
Programme produced by Sophie Samaille, Isabelle Romero and Perrine Desplats
