PM Kopacz: Minsk agreement ‘very fragile’
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
13.02.2015 13:32
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz has said that the ceasefire agreement reached in the Belarusian capital of Minsk is “very fragile, there has to be unity in the EU for it to work”.
PM Ewa Kopacz in Brussels, 12.02.2015 Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
The comment came on Thursday late evening after an meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, which hosted Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The informal summit took place after a gruelling 17-hour negotiation round in Belarus between the so-called ‘Normandy Four’ of presidents Poroshenko, Putin, Hollande and Chancellor Merkel.
The EU is to uphold further sanctions which were slapped on Moscow at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday this week, with the European Commission also planning to draw up a “bad weather scenario” if Russia were to break the Minsk agreement.
Prime Minister kopacz told journalists in Brussels that the Polish delegation “had ot do its homework” before the European Council summit.
“A lot of phone calls before the Council, as well as meetings with our friends from the Visegrad Group and a conversation with the British Prime Minister” were all undertaken ahead of Thursday’s meeting, Kopacz listed.
Ahead of the meeting, voices had been raised that the EU should call off further sanctions on Russia in light of the Minsk agreement. However, according diplomatic sources told the PAP news agency that both Poland and the UK were against such measures. (jb)