Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has again spoken out clearly against questioning the country’s right to self-determination in view of the Russian troop deployment on Ukraine’s eastern border. “We want to have common security, the territorial integrity of the states is an essential part of it,” said Scholz on Thursday after a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in the Chancellery.
The talks that have since begun in various formats to resolve the Ukraine crisis have not changed the seriousness of the situation, said Scholz. Military activity by Russia against Ukraine would result in a “high price”, he affirmed.
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Rutte added that the veto right of individual EU states makes possible sanctions decisions more difficult. Rutte referred to his country’s proposal to abolish the principle of unanimity among the 27 EU countries in this area.
Rutte is one of the longest serving heads of government in the EU
The new government in the Netherlands, again led by Rutte, was sworn in last Monday. After the end of the chancellorship of Angela Merkel (CDU), Rutte, together with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is one of the longest-serving heads of government in the EU.
Memories of the shooting down of the MH17
Three years ago, at the Munich Security Conference, Rutte called for sanction decisions to be made by a qualified majority among the EU states. The EU had previously tightened existing sanctions against Russia in 2014 after the Malaysian MH17 passenger plane that took off from Amsterdam was shot down. However, different interests within the EU had become apparent at the time. At the time, France demanded, despite the sanctions, to hold on to an arms deal that had already been signed with Moscow and the delivery of Mistral warships to Russia.
At the last EU summit in December, the EU states threatened Russia with sanctions in the event of aggression against Ukraine, but deliberately left details open. One of the possible options is an end to the controversial Baltic Sea pipeline Nord Stream 2.
