The S&D Group in the European Parliament welcomes the reference made by the EP President in today's EU summit to the necessity of enabling a parliamentary dialogue between the EU and Russia.
Yesterday the EP Conference of Presidents already decided to explore opportunities to re-open the bridges of parliamentary cooperation with Russia after more than a year and a half of blockage.
S&D vice-chair for foreign affairs, neighbourhood policy and enlargement, Knut Fleckenstein MEP, said:
"We reiterate our conviction that dialogue with Russia on a parliamentary level is needed and welcome the EP decision to send a larger ad-hoc delegation to Moscow early next year. In order to try to solve problems and reduce tensions you need to talk to each other; no contact is not an option."
40 years after the signature of the Helsinki Final Act, the S&D Group has set the relaunching of parliamentary dialogue between the EU and Russia as one of its priorities. We are optimistic that in 2016, as a result of removing members of parliament from both the EU and Russian blacklists, channels can be opened again.
