European Council: Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival

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Good morning, everybody.

We are going to have a very intense meeting today, a lot of issues.

First, of course, Ukraine; we see a strong push for peace, but it is one-sided. We have not seen any willingness from the Russian side to move or seriously talk about peace. Even the ceasefire for Christmas was rejected. Clearly, we need to put the pressure on Russia, so that they would go from pretending to negotiate, to actually come to the table, and really negotiate.

And of course, we have the discussions on the reparations loan. Now, the proposals that we have been working on are also addressing Belgium's concerns. I think to go for the legislative proposal means that we all take the risk, because it is a European proposal, so the risk and the burden is shared equally. I think the issues that Belgium has raised, we have also addressed. I hope that we get this over the finish line. Putin is banking on us to fail, so we should not give them that.

We also discuss European competitiveness and how we can be a stronger economic power. And there, it is very important to have diversified trade deals, and therefore the Mercosur agreement is equally important, to have opportunities for our companies, for our prosperity in this very dangerous world where we have actors that are weaponising trade, that are weaponising supply chains. We need to be more independent in this regard.

So, a lot of topics. And it is going to be a long meeting.