Euroactive The Brief 18/04/24 View in Browser What to expect from Russia at D-Day anniversary? By Georgi Gotev

 Euroactive

The Brief 

18/04/24 View in Browser

What to expect from Russia at D-Day anniversary?

By Georgi Gotev

France has invited Russia to the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, an event that changed the course of World War Two. “Given the circumstances,” the organisers said, President Vladimir Putin is not invited but another figure, to be announced later, will represent Russia on 6 June.

It is certainly disturbing to imagine a Russian politician among world leaders at the historic site of the 1944 landing, at a time when this country is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine.

At the 70th anniversary, 10 years ago, the then French president François Hollande hosted 17 leaders including US President Barack Obama, Britain’s David Cameron, Canada’s Stephen Harper, Germany’s Angela Merkel, and Vladimir Putin.

At that time, Putin’s was already a controversial presence. He was invited despite the annexation of Crimea three months earlier. The explanation was the heavy price paid by Russia in the battle against Nazism: Historians put the Soviet death toll during the Second World War at 27 million.

Ten years ago in Normandy, Putin and the then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko spoke in the midst of a pro-Russian insurrection in eastern Ukraine, which the West accused Moscow of fueling. Now there is no doubt that this was a hybrid war directly orchestrated by the Kremlin.

That D-Day event, in the presence of Hollande and Merkel, opened the way for discussions involving the four countries, in the so-called ‘Normandy format’, to try to find a solution to the situation in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

With hindsight, we know that Putin used the ‘Normandy format’ to keep the ball rolling until Russia was ready for the full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

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Photo of the day

 Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani (R) shakes hands with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during the G7 Foreign Ministers' meeting, in Capri, Italy, 18 April 2024. G7 foreign ministers on 17 April gathered on the Italian resort island of Capri for three days of encounters chaired by Italian Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, with efforts to avert an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East among their priorities. Tajani has called for restraint from Israel after Iran's last weekend's attack against it. EPA-EFE/ALESSANDRO DI MEO

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The Roundup

On Tuesday, the French government unveiled the list of the first 55 new sites it is making to host green industries.

France has questioned the latest draft of the EU Cloud Certification Scheme (EUCS) that would allow member states to set national sovereignty requirements at the highest cybersecurity level of the scheme, according to a leaked letter sent to the European Commission’s Legal Service.

South Africa, the world’s second-largest citrus exporter in the world after Spain, has launched a dispute at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over the EU’s phytosanitary trade rules, which it said were not justified or appropriate.

The world should ensure diverse supply chains and implement a framework to track the progress made towards tripling global renewable capacity by 2030, the EU’s Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Stay on top of EU politics and elections with the latest weekly EU Elections Decoded.

Look out for…

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Finland, meets with PM Petteri Orpo on Friday.

High Representative Josep Borrell participates in G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Capri on Friday.

Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni takes part in spring meetings of World Bank/IMF in Washington on Tuesday-Friday.

Informal meeting of consumer protection ministers, Thursday-Friday.

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