The EU extends the existing restrictive measures - imposed on Russian and Ukrainian persons and entities because of the Ukraine crisis - which were due to expire in March and the blacklist will also be expanded. The EU Foreign Ministers will decide on the newly drafted blacklist on 9 February, Péter Szijjártó told journalists after the extraordinary meeting of the EU member states’ heads of diplomacy on Thursday in Brussels.

The adopted joint statement does not mention plans of further economic sanctions against Russia, it merely states that the institutions of the European Union will have to prepare all potentially relevant decision concerning the crisis.

The assets of entities affected by the measure will be frozen, and an EU travel ban will be imposed on natural persons concerned. The European Commission - the executive body of the EU responsible for proposing legislations - and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini will put forward the proposal on extending the sanctions within a week, and the Foreign Ministers will adopt it at their meeting on 9 February, where they will prepare the EU summit that is due three days later.

The Foreign Affairs Council will follow up the situation and the diplomatic efforts, and it has instructed the European Commission services and the European External Action Service to perform further preparatory work “regarding any appropriate measure” to ensure that the terms of the ceasefire agreement of Minsk are met quickly and fully, Péter Szijjártó said.

The adopted text is significantly different from the proposal that suggested “additional measures” and was widely interpreted as opening the way to further decisions on economic sanctions against Russia. The Hungarian minister emphasised that Budapest considers it important to take a gradual approach to future measures. Péter Szijjártó also mentioned that there was general consensus in that the conflict has to be solved based on the Minsk agreement.

"It was Hungary that proposed the text to require everybody to comply with the Minsk agreements” - he added. It was also added to the text upon Hungarian initiative that the rights of national communities and minorities shall be respected when reforms are being implemented in Ukraine, Péter Szijjártó said.

According to Minister this issue is very important because there are several ongoing legislative procedures in Ukraine, and “Hungary’s expects these not to deteriorate the situation of the local Hungarian community”. Péter Szijjártó drew the attention to the ongoing debate about the language law and the administrative reform. In the latter case the expectation on behalf of Hungary is to take the ethnic composition of the population into account and to maintain the only “járás” (local administrative unit) with Hungarian majority, he said. The Minister pointed out the government decision, which was adopted a day before and which is to provide an additional support of HUF 140 million in addition to an earlier grant of HUF 200 million for the operation of Hungarian institutions in Transcarpathia.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade warned that the lack of change in Ukraine may cause irreversible damages. According to the data quoted by him, the Ukrainian economy declined by more than 8 percent last year, and the value of EU exports to Ukraine fell by EUR 7 billion, while exports to Russia decreased by EUR 14 billion in the first ten months of 2014.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)