HRVP addresses European Parliament on Ukraine and other Foreign Policy Priorities

This week's plenary in the European parliament was rich in debates on external relations and featured the active engagement of HRVP Mogherini.

The HRVP addressed the EP plenary on the situation on Ukraine on the eve of the meeting in Minsk between Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France. On Thursday she joined the meeting of Heads of State and Governments to discuss concrete steps to follow up the breakthrough in Minsk.

In a separate address, the HRVP stressed her grave concern for the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, especially the debates over a new electoral law and the violent protests that followed. Mogherini stressed the EU's continued support over the past fifteen years which includes two military operations, a sustained effort to support Security Sector Reform, as well as more traditional areas of co-operation such as health, roads and natural resources management. Mogherini also voiced her severe preoccupation for the security situation of 2014 Sakharov Prize Dr. Mukewege.

HRVP Mogherini also spoke on the 2015 Review Conference of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). She was joined by all political groups in a call to strengthen the NPT, as a means to ensure peace and security for the EU as well as globally.

Other plenary debates on external relations at the Strasbourg session included the funding challenges of UNRWA which Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations Hahn took on behalf of the HRVP. Commissioner Stylianides, responsible for humanitarian aid and crisis management, also spoke on the debate on the situation in Yemen, as well as the humanitarian crisis in Iraq and Syria, in particular in the context of Dae'sh growing influence in the region.