The EU’s sanctions on Russia are prolonging the conflict in Ukraine and making Europeans poorer, MEP Clare Daly argued
Clare Daly (Irish MEP) has accuseded the EU “shooting ourselves in the foot”Russia was sanctioned and warned of the consequences for Russian energy imports. “disastrous inflation, rocketing energy costs, and a historic decline in living standards,”Russia continues to be unaffected.
Addressing the EU Parliament on Wednesday, a day before it voted to support “an immediate full embargo on Russian imports of oil, coal, nuclear fuel and gas,”Daly dismissed the current sanctions by the bloc as ineffective against Russia and possible “catastrophic”For Europeans.
“How is not selling Kerrygold butter to Russia going to save any Ukrainian lives? How is buying filthy fracked US gas going to stop the war?” she exclaimed, referring to the American Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) offered to European buyers by Washington, albeit at a higher cost than Russia’s product.
“They won’t, of course, because nowhere have sanctions ever succeeded in ending a military assault or achieving regime change.”
Innocent Ukrainian civilians who have been victims of illegal war are not helped by the EU’s economic war against Russia. Russia continues to be unaffected, and EU citizens are facing catastrophic inflation and rocketing energy prices, as well as a decline in their living standards. This is madness… pic.twitter.com/qgKX5eYyNL
— Clare Daly (@ClareDalyMEP) April 7, 2022
“What they have done is unleash economic devastation… increasingly being paid for by the citizens of Europe, facing massive energy price hikes, inflation, and a catastrophic decline in their living standards. Talk about shooting ourselves in the foot.”
While the EU Commission plans to cut its dependence on Russian fossil fuels to zero by 2030, a majority of MEPs want the bloc to go further, and voted 513-22 for Thursday’s resolution calling for a total energy embargo on Russia. The resolution, which is non-binding was approved even though European governments have warned their citizens about energy rationing as well as sharp rises in living costs. This comes after the inflation rate in the Euro area hit an all-time high 7.5% last month.
In Daly’s home country of Ireland, inflation spiked to 14% in March. Eamon Ryan, the Environment Minister in Ireland this week, urged Irish residents to use fewer showers and to drive less to help offset rising energy prices.
Daly, a well-known anti-war campaigner in Ireland who has publicly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin over the offensive on Ukraine, also condemned the EU’s policy of arming Kiev. In February, the bloc broke with traditional practice to arm Kiev. MEPs approved to vote for continuation. “step up”On Thursday, arms shipment will be accepted
“The EU, instead of promoting peace and acting in the interests of the people of Europe, the Ukrainians, the EU citizens, and yes, the Russian citizens, has become a tool of NATO and the military-industrial complex,”Sie said.
“We should restore our role as a diplomatic one of promoting peace,”Elle concluded. “Anything else makes us complicit.”
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