REYKJAVIK: A year after excluding Russia, leaders from the Council of Europe’s 46 member states met Tuesday afternoon at a summit in Iceland to demonstrate their unity against Moscow.
The summit, only the fourth for the pan-European organization in its nearly 75 years of existence, aims to improve the means to hold Russia criminally responsible for the devastation and crimes caused by its invasion of Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, who have all received Volodymyr Zelensky since Saturday, will lead the European family to Reykjavik.
Without the Ukrainian president: ending a European tour that has taken him to Rome, Berlin, Paris and London, Mr Zelensky, who organizers have long hoped for, will intervene via videoconference.
On Twitter on Monday, Ukraine’s head of state announced a “homecoming”, promising “new powerful weapons” as his country prepares for a retaliatory strike against Russian troops.
As Moscow signaled a long war despite heavy losses, Europe is trying to show that it is united to support Kiev — whatever the outcome of this difficult assault on Russian defensive positions.
“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday.
And “nothing will be done in Ukraine without Ukraine”, he vowed, at a time when Kiev fears it will find itself pressured by its allies to negotiate with Moscow if it doesn’t get the military success it hopes for soon.
Court for Ukraine
Organizers Iceland hoped the nearly 24-hour summit, which prompted peaceful Reykjavik to bring in police reinforcements from abroad, would bring “obvious results”.
A “damage register” caused by the Russian invasion should be unveiled, two months after the announcement of an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The list will be “a first step, and a major step, towards compensation being paid by Russia”, according to Ms. von der Leyen, who like others in Europe defended the creation of a special tribunal for war crimes in Ukraine. , presumably in The Hague.
MM. Macron, Sunak and Scholz, all three of whom will be speaking in Reykjavik later Tuesday, are expected to show their support for the initiative, which Washington also supports.
A round table and then a dinner of European leaders must determine “how the Council of Europe can actively assist Ukraine, as a member of this great family of European democracies”, underlined the Elysée. The French head of state will defend Europe “united around its values”, those around him say.
Russia is a member until March 2022 of the European Council, a rare European or Western forum that is part of the Arctic Council – from which Moscow is also sidelined – and the OSCE (International Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
Moscow has been banned from the European Council as a result of the invasion of Ukraine but remains prepared to leave the organization.
In addition to the 27 members of the European Union, the jurisdiction of the European Council – a total of 675 million people – includes about twenty other countries including Turkey and the United Kingdom. It is best known for its jurisdiction, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Despite its displayed unity, the European Council is not without its rifts.
Thus, the summit will bring together two conflicting countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
As for the United Kingdom – Mr Sunak’s participation has long been in doubt – he regularly shoots red balls at the ECHR, which he sees as excessive obstacles to hardening his immigration policies.
According to Reykjavik, the meeting should also discuss “the observed decline in democracy in Europe” or current topics such as artificial intelligence breakthroughs.
The summit was held as a prelude to the G7 starting Friday in Japan, where MM. Macron, Sunak, Scholz and Ms. Meloni has to find American President Joe Biden, among other things.
