Ahead of the plenary session in Strasbourg from 7th to 10th March, Ska KELLER (Greens/EFA,DE) and Philippe LAMBERTS (Greens/EFA, BE), Co-Presidents of the Greens group in the European Parliament, hold a press briefing.

Strasbourg

plenary session

LAMBERTS, Philippe (Greens/EFA, BE)

press conference

KELLER, Ska (Greens/EFA, DE)

Greens/EFA

Press conference by Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR) and Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-Presidents - Briefing The Left

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, Thank you very much, David, and I would like to wish to everybody who identifies as woman on the occasion of International Women's Day, this is an official state official festivity in some states. And in Berlin everybody is enjoying a day off as a result of International Women's Day for all they feel that they are women in society.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, And now we have a very interesting plenary week for us, and the Prime Minister of Estonia is going to be talking about the current conflict in Ukraine and the war in Ukraine. Acting on behalf of this group, I went up to state very clearly that, as The Left said in the European Parliament, we wanted to express a message of solidarity with the people of Ukraine with Ukrainian women and men. We stand alongside them that given this appalling attack on the part of Russia.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, And we also showed solidarity with the Russians and Russia who are demonstrating against this and thus demonstrating against the Putin's regime and they are taking huge personal risks and demonstrating. And therefore, we are astonished, amazed to find that bravery. We would like to express our solidarity with the more people involved.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, Putin and his regime have responsibility this attack for and we demand an immediate ceasefire. Russian troops should be withdrawn unconditionally from Ukraine and they should return to Russia, and there should be a serious return by Russia to the negotiation table and we shouldn't see further arms fired in this war. We should see a real peace initiative and diplomacy. We support the measures taken in terms of sanctions, and that is to say, especially the targeted sanctions against the Putin's entourage, Putin and his oligarchs, its friends in secret services and in the military and the corrupt Russian society.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, These targeted sanctions must target them and to make sure this is really worthwhile, we must have targeted sanctions and make sure that the European Union follows the traces of the dirty money and a lot of the money, especially Russian oligarchs money, is in European tax havens. We need a European register, therefore, which makes it quite clear who does this, and so that some mansions and yachts can be confiscated. And is the same with money and property and other property.

SOUNDBITE (German), Martin SCHIRDEWAN (The Left, DE), Co-President, And we must support the refugees, we must provide funding for the refugee support efforts, and we must make sure that money is available for this endeavor. And this is something that we will discuss with the prime minister of Estonia. Naturally we are available to answer any questions that you may have regards to the plenary this week.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Obviously, this plenary, just like last week, has opted to sign of the war that is happening on the gates of Europe and has already caused far too many victims. Of course, and just like last week's plenary, we are on the side of those who are running the struggle against the aggressor.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, Solidarity saw keynote in Europe. And that was to make one note in particular: naturally the economic sanctions are necessary so as to dry up the sources of finance from the Russian regime. We need to talk about the top contents. But how do we get his wallet when most of the assets belonging to Russian oligarchs are held in tax havens? So I want to make the official request today to the European Commission that a claim has to be sent to tax havens, including Malta, where three quarters of the flags of convenience in the world are, and request to freeze these assets. That would be sanctions.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, We definetely need to register all these assets held by billionaires so we can combat tax fraud. That's a long term struggle. But if we can get these assets to make sanctions more effective in the shorter term, that would be doing something already. Therre was the resolution adopted last week, which provides for economic counterparts to be tackled the regime in Russia. But it's not down to European citizens to pick up the tab. The prices of petrol, for example, have interesting going up. So it means essentially we have economic measures to compensate for this.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, Martin told you about our approach. De-escalation and negotiation and, above all, trying to find a negotiated solution. And then about Russia Today and Sputnik: these are things that we don't want, and they are conveying disinformation. The question arising is why we would ban such a media and the precedent it would set if it were misused and I've seen some of your colleagues in the media have raised this question, I think we have a reasonable doubt about the possible consequences in the last six days.

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, Women Day is it today, in this context is obviously rather specific. I think it's fair for all the women who are in resistance in the Ukraine, some of them are out front, are fighting with weapons, at the front of all of those in the reargard, logistical basis. And I wish to remind you that all too often women are collateral damage, and rape is all too often used as an instrument of war (intelligible).

SOUNDBITE (French), Manon AUBRY (The Left, FR), Co-President, I have quote here, somehwere, to have some help from Simone de Beauvoir, I think it sums up our philosophy and says: never forget that it will take an economic, political or religious crisis for women's rights to be brought into question. Women's rights are never conquered and ever we have to remain vigilant throughout our lives. So Simone de Beauvoir forced on this with the health crisis we've had, with the economic crisis we have, and now with this economic crisis. She was right. Women are all too often left in a second place, and we look forward to provisions from the European Commission to combat violence. Thank you.

Q&A, focusing on the consequences of the european sanctions on all the levels of russian society.

Q&A, on the report on foreign interference in the democratic process.

Q&A, focusing on the specific proposals coming from the EP in order to better support those in needs due to ongoin crisis in Ukraine.