Hello,
I am coming late to the EUCO [European Council] because I am coming from another meeting with [the leaders of] Kosovo [Prime Minister, Albin Kurti] and Serbia [President Aleksandar Vučić].
You know that today the EUCO [European Council] will focus on Ukraine as always, because Putin continues fighting, continues this war, and we have to continue supporting Ukraine. The discussion will be about the long-term commitments on the security, and how we continue supporting Ukraine militarily and financially.
The other issue – is certainly the situation in the Middle East, where we will have to continue with our position which was stated at the last informal European Council, saying that certainly, strong condemnations of the Hamas terrorist attack, the right to defend of Israel in accordance with the international law and humanitarian law. We will discuss about the humanitarian pauses in order to make the humanitarian aid being able to come into Gaza and to relaunch the political process, looking for a solution which can avoid other bursts of violence and look for a two-state solution to be implemented.
I am coming from [the meeting with the leaders of] Kosovo/Serbia; work is ongoing, maybe I will have to leave the EUCO meeting and try to sit again with the two leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to try to see if we can find a solution inside the [Belgrade-Pristina] Dialogue. There is no other solution. The European path of Kosovo and Serbia goes through this Dialogue in order to normalise their relations.
There are other crises; we do not have to forget other crises. The Sahel crisis, for example. I am going to fly to Africa.
We do not have to forget other crisis, we have to pay attention to what is happening in the Sahel, but certainly, the most important attention will be paid to Ukraine and the Middle East, and Serbia/Kosovo.
Q&A
Q. would you confirm (… inaudible …) ceasefire rather ( … inaudible …) humanitarian pauses?
We started to discuss about that at the Foreign Affairs Council. On the resolution which has been voted at the United Nations, none has been approved but there were reference to that. On the conclusions of the [European] Council there will be the position that the leaders will adopt.
Q. Do you have any plan to stop the ground operation into Gaza. What is the EU position?
I cannot tell you the result of the meeting. I told you what we are going to discuss.
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-248502