European Union – Statement by Jean-Noël Barrot on his arrival at the Foreign Affairs Council (14 April 2025)

This weekend, the horror in Ukraine reached its peak with the Palm Sunday massacre. In Sumy in the north-east of the country, innocent civilians were targeted twice by Vladimir Putin’s missiles. It’s a demonstration – if it were still needed – of Vladimir Putin’s contempt for civilians and for the laws of war. Let me remind you that Vladimir Putin is still under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes. It’s also a demonstration of his real intentions. Whereas Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire more than a month ago now, Vladimir Putin clearly has no intention of moving in that direction. So he must be forced to, and that’s why I’m calling on the European Union to adopt the most severe sanctions against Russia, to paralyse its economy and prevent it from fuelling its war effort. I think the United States, which has put a lot of effort into achieving a ceasefire – and Donald Trump himself has devoted a lot of time and energy to it – can also, through sanctions which are ready, force and oblige Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.

In Gaza, the situation is more tragic than ever. Access for humanitarian aid to the enclave stopped more than a month ago now. There must be a return to the ceasefire, unimpeded access for humanitarian aid must be permitted, and the Hamas hostages must be released. Talks can then begin on the basis of the plan prepared by the Arab countries for Gaza’s reconstruction, governance and security, and then for movement towards a political solution, because there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A political solution is the focus of the United Nations conference chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, which aims to preserve the two-State solution and put it on track, through collective and reciprocal recognition enabling the Israeli people and the Palestinian people to live side by side in peace and security.

On Iran, today we’re adopting a raft of sanctions against people responsible for the state-hostages policy. That’s the demand I set out at the last Foreign Affairs Council. I’m pleased that we can adopt these sanctions today against seven people and two entities, including Shiraz prison. It was time, because the conditions in which some of [our] French-European compatriots are being held are humiliating and akin to torture in international law, and some of them are deprived of consular protection. That’s why I’ve announced that France will lodge a complaint to the International Court of Justice for the violation of consular protection. And I’ve reminded all our compatriots to avoid travelling to Iran, and those who are in transit to return as soon as possible. At the same time, the United States embarked on talks with Iran this weekend. We very much welcome this initiative, but we’ll be vigilant, with our British and German friends and partners, to ensure that any negotiations that might begin are indeed in line with our security interests when it comes to the Iranian nuclear programme, which poses a significant threat to French and European territory. We’re awaiting the report, in a few weeks’ time, by the IAEA Director General, which is due to demonstrate – or at any rate report on – the progress of that programme.

Regarding Azerbaijan, I’m very concerned about the rising tensions on the border. I’d like the European mission deployed on the ground to be greatly increased in order to be able to observe and contain those tensions. The peace treaty must now be signed and arbitrary detainees, prisoners, must be released. That’s the gist of what I said last week.

I’ll end with the situation in the Balkans, which was the focus of discussion yesterday evening and to which we’ll return today to make active efforts to ensure that the region – which is at the heart of the European Union and to which we want to export our stability rather that import its instability – all our efforts must converge to bring stability and a form of calm, despite the tensions that have emerged in recent days.