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By: PetersonInstitute
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Pierre Moscovici: Working for Investment and Growth in the New European Union - Video
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Natalie Bennett: We should celebrate EU freedom of movement - Video
Commercializing agriculture in Lango increases locals #39; incomes
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PARIS
It's a rare occasion when European Union leaders end a summit in just one day, but that's what happened Thursday when heads of state wrapped up their last big meeting of the year before midnight in Brussels.
A top item of discussion: the standoff with Russia over Ukraine. Months of European and U.S. sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis appear to have taken their toll.
But are they enough? For the new head of the EU, former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the answer is "no." He believes the 28-member bloc needs to forge a long-term strategy in dealing with Russia.
Earlier in the day, the EU agreed to toughen sanctions against Crimea, which Russia annexed in March. But the bloc is holding off for now on piling on new punitive measures against Moscow.
Speaking to reporters after the summit, British Prime Minister David Cameron said the EU leaders unanimously agreed to keep in place the existing sanctions against Moscow.
"As I've always said, the door is always open. If Russia changes its behavior, if it allows the Ukrainian people to exercise their choice and their sovereignty and decide their future, if it takes Russian troops out of Ukraine and obeys all the strictures of the Minsk agreement, these sanctions can go [be lifted], but until that happens, these sanctions shouldn't go," he said.
The standoff over Ukraine has plunged relations between Europe and Russia to lows not seen in years. The sanctions, along with falling oil prices, are taking their toll on Russia. But today, EU President Donald Tusk believes it is time to take a longer view when it comes to ties with Moscow.
"When I declare that we need something more than immediate reactions, I mean that Europe really needs a united strategy toward Ukraine, but especially toward Russia," he said. "Because ... in fact Russia is our strategic problem. ... The biggest challenge in fact today is Russian approach not only to Ukraine but also to European Union."
Tusk's remarks suggest a new European position on how to deal with Russia. He says the EU must be united and pragmatic, but the shape of any new European policy remains unclear.
The European Union's unanimous resolve to punish Russia for its aggression in Ukraine appeared to be cracking as French, German, Austrian and Italian leaders voiced concern at an alliance summit of inflicting too much pain on Moscow as its economy tumbles.
French President Francois Hollande was the first to step out of the 28-nation bloc's collective drive for further sanctions on Russia when they were discussed at a summit in Brussels on Thursday night.
"There were no new sanctions [adopted], because there should not be," Hollande told reporters after the session. He said the leaders had agreed to maintain the status quo in hopes of seeing the Kremlin follow through on recent hints that it is pressing pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine to honor a shaky cease-fire.
If Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers on his recent calls for peace in embattled eastern Ukraine "then there is no need for new sanctions -- on the contrary, in that case we should think about how we too could begin to de-escalate," Hollande said, according to the Deutsche Welle news agency.
France is one of the countries whose own economies have been hit by the sanctions against Russia. Delivery of two Mistral aircraft carriers built under contract for Russia has been canceled by Paris in conformance with a European Union and U.S. ban on sales of weapons and military assets to Russia.
Hollande's appeal for the European allies to keep sanctions relief on the table as a carrot to reward any positive changes in Russia's behavior toward Ukraine struck a chord with others in the alliance.
The European Union's new foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, warned that pushing Russia into a deeper economic crisis was in nobody's interest.
"The fact that Russia is in a difficult situation from a financial point of view is not good news, not for the Russian citizens, not for Ukraine and not for Europe and the rest of the world," she said after the Thursday night meeting.
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and Italian Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi also expressed their opposition to any further economic pressures on Russia, which has seen its currency, the ruble, battered by the sharp fall in global oil prices and withering capital flight as foreign investors scuttle their Russian operations.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been heading the camp of EU leaders committed to keeping the economic pressure on the Kremlin until Putin reverses his illegal seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region and makes visible efforts to keep Russian arms and fighters out of eastern Ukraine.
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European leaders warn against too much economic pain on Russia