Europe must show flexibility in dealing with the Greek debt crisis not just out of a sense of solidarity but to defend the common interest as well, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Tuesday (April 14).
“If one falls, it’s the whole system that falls,” she said.
Speaking with students ahead of a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in the German town of Luebeck, Mogherini said the rest of the EU should understand this was not just Greece’s business but their own too and the community should “show flexibility and not just for the sake of solidarity but most of all for the sake of common interest”.
Both Mogherini and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is hosting the G7 meeting, called for an end to the fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Steinmeier told students at the political discussion forum that the talks between the foreign ministers from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine the day before had been tough.
“In the case of Ukraine, last night I sat with my Ukrainian, Russian and French colleagues until well after midnight, and if you had been there, you would have noticed that the diplomatic language can sometimes be anything but diplomatic. It can really get strongly to the point when it is about such fundamental debates,” he said.
“To me that seems to be a far better alternative than the attempt to solve muddled conflicts with military solutions, as a rule that is something that generally doesn’t help,” he added.
Foreign ministers from Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine called for an end to the renewed heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine following tough talks in Berlin on Monday.
Steinmeier told reporters the talks had been “at times very controversial” but said all participants agreed there was no alternative to the ceasefire agreement signed in the Belarusian capital Minsk in February.
The talks are talking place amid a sharp spike in hostilities in eastern Ukraine over the weekend. On Monday one Ukrainian serviceman was killed and six were wounded in rebel-held territories.
(Reuters)