Council of Europe ends summit by pledging to assist disaster in Ukraine

The Council of Europe closed its summit of heads of state and government on Wednesday with the creation of a register of damages for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, support for the process of creating a tribunal special to judge the “aggression” and the request to Moscow to release the civilians deported by the conflict.

The Reykjavik summit, the fourth in the Council of Europe’s 73-year history and the first since Warsaw in 2005, sent a message of unity for Ukraine. Forty countries, including Spain, have joined the initiative, including Canada, the United States and Japan, which have observer status, as well as the European Union (EU), which makes a contribution ” substantial” to the initial registration fee, which will be headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands, with a satellite office in Ukraine.

Three of the 46 Council countries (Andorra, Switzerland and Bulgaria) have expressed their intention to sign the initiative, while six others (Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Bosnia) have refused to sign it. Hungary’s President Katalin Novák called Russia’s “brutal aggression” “unacceptable” in her speech, but she also demanded that Ukraine respect the country’s ethnic minorities, including Hungarians.

“Without accountability, there can be no lasting peace,” said Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, at a press conference following the summit, a country which today handed over the rotating presidency of the Council to Latvia. The Icelandic prime minister called support for the register “extremely positive” and said it was “predictable” that not all countries would sign on.

The register will be used to keep evidence of “damage, loss and harm caused by Russian aggression” since February 24, 2022, when the military intervention began, both to all individuals and to the Ukrainian state.

“Heads of State and Government expressed their willingness to engage in international initiatives to develop this mechanism, which could include a claims commission and a compensation fund, stressing the obligation of the Russian Federation to pay for the damage caused by its war of aggression. , is stated in the Reykjavik declaration.

The text also calls on Russia for the “immediate” release of all civilians “forcibly transferred or illegally deported to its territory or to temporarily controlled or occupied areas, in particular children”, in addition to the withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.

“The establishment of the register of damage caused by Russia is undoubtedly a historic decision that will allow us to begin the process of establishing justice. The creation of a special court is extremely important,” said the Prime Ukrainian Minister Denys Shmygal during the same appearance. . (Eph)