Mr President, dear colleagues , why are we so proud of this report? Why do we owe Andrius Kubilius our thanks? For two reasons – and a third.
The first is the firmness with which this report condemns the actions, the misdeeds of the Putin regime, both outside the borders of the Russian Federation and within it.
The second is the warmth with which this report extends the hand of friendship and hope to the people of the Russian Federation. This report has added something new to our condemnation of the Putin regime. This report says that, looking beyond this regime, we obviously aspire to the best possible relations and the greatest possible cooperation with a people who share the same continent, the same culture and the same civilisation as we do.
This second point is obviously the more important of the two points in the Kubilius report. Because the first one, my God, we all knew it. This is not new in our conception and in our vision of the situation. But to say, as this report does with such force, that beyond the present moment, one day we will rebuild this continent together: that is something new. And above all, there is here the certainty that Mr Putin and his regime are not eternal.
