Georgische minister van Buitenlandse Zaken vraagt om EU-missie (en)

"Russia bluntly disregards the cease-fire", said Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Eka Tkeshelashvili in an extraordinary meeting with MEPs of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Security and Defence Subcommittee and the Delegation for Relations with the South Caucasus. Not only were there no signs of a withdrawal of Russian forces, she said, but Russia had even strengthened its military presence in Georgia and had started to build permanent checkpoints. In view of "continuous ethnic cleansing in the regions under Russian occupation", the minister urged the EU to send an ESDP mission to Georgia to make "an authoritative evaluation of the situation".

Ms Tkeshelashvili reminded MEPs that Georgia is the only transit state for Armenia and that "scarcity will very soon lead to a grave humanitarian situation there as well". She also warned MEPs that a destabilisation of the Caucasus and other former Soviet regions "will kill the EU's possibility to diversify its energy sources".

EP support for Georgia and its people_

"A war of nerves has been launched against the population of Georgia", said Delegation Chair Marie Anne Isler Béguin (Greens/EFA, FR), who has just visited the region. She stressed that "Europe has to make Russia honour the agreement". "The way we react in Georgia will be an example for the future," said Klaus Hänsch (PES, DE) while Christopher Beazley (EPP-ED, UK) assured the foreign minister of the "overwhelming support of the European Parliament".

The EU should "fully commit itself and its resources to finding a peaceful and sustainable solution to the conflict, if possible by sending an ESDP mission", agreed Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (EPP-ED, PL). Stressing that the EU should be involved in the reconstruction process, he called for a revision of the budget "to look for additional money for Georgia".

Adam Bielan (UEN, PL) criticised that "in the cease-fire agreement there is not a word said about territorial integrity". "We must praise President Sarkozy's reaction for its swiftness rather than its quality", he said. Katrin Saks (PES, ET) expressed her surprise that the EU's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy "Javier Solana was not in the picture at all" asking "why do we even need him then?".

_but Georgian actions criticized, as well

"How could Saakashvili be so incredibly stupid to walk straight into the trap set for him by Mr Putin?", asked Andrew Duff (ALDE, UK). Tobias Pflüger (GUE/NGL, DE) warned of a "very one-sided description of the conflict" adding that Georgia's attacks on the civil population should be condemned just as much as "Russia's disproportionate reaction".

Cem Özdemir (Greens/EFA, DE) asked the minister whether it was true that she had consulted US Undersecretary of State Daniel Fried before Georgia's intervention in South Ossetia, and that he had advised her not to do so. Ms Tkeshelashvili answered that "we never planned military action as a valid option from our side".