“No, I don’t think so”, was Minister Federica Mogherini’s response, as she arrived in Luxembourg for the EU Foreign Affairs Council, to journalists’ who asked if it was time to go on to “phase 3” of the sanctions against Russia. But, the minister asserted that it was “a situation whose developments in recent days and hours concern us deeply”.
The path of dialogue
“Italy, along with the EU, will do everything”, Mogherini continued, “to foster responsible attitudes both inside and outside of Ukraine in the coming hours”. “Italy, the minister added, “has insisted on the path of dialogue from the beginning. We continue to think this is the only route possible, despite what seems to be a deterioration of the situation on the ground. This is our commitment and our task today”.
Bosnia – Herzegovina integration and Syria
Mogherini then underscored that today’s Foreign Affairs Council would not only be discussing Ukraine but also “two questions that Italy is especially concerned with”: Bosnia-Herzegovina’s “integration and rapprochement” to the EU, and the “Syrian situation, which we must not allow to be forgotten: a political but also humanitarian drama”.
